Revenge is a Sweet Game
by EtherealDreamCloud
Summary: A young man named Woody Trickster was moving in the neighbourhood Blue Highway, hoping to find a good place for continuing his life. Here we will see how does life work in this neighbourhood, especially when his loathsome next-door neighbour Roger Rottweiler causes so much pain and cruelty. Woody's goal is to play pranks on him as revenge while showing his true face to the world.
1. New neighbour

**Author's note: Yay! Our fanfic adaption of Neighbours from Hell 1 is finally here! This one is possibly the most carefully planned out than the other ones.**

 **This fanfic is written both by me and my friend SailorRaybloomDZ. She also drew the cover for it.**

 **I'll have to thank her a million times for pretty much everything.**

* * *

It was sunny day in the ordinary neighbourhood Blue Highway, well, it was as ordinary as anyone usually imagines. The sky was blue, birds were flying from tree to tree, today it was quiet here. Not many people knew what kind of people live in there. Nor did a young man taken in there by taxi. This short guy with brown hair, blue eyes and long nose was moving in this neighbourhood hoping to find a good place for continuing his life. Once the vehicle stopped in front of a small blue house, he paid the driver and took his suitcases out.

As the car drove away, he picked up his suitcases and carried them for a bit. The man thought he should first introduce himself to some of his neighbours since he is new here. He decided to take care of the unpacking, cleaning and putting away the things a little later. So there was already the neighbour next-door. This neighbour is middle-aged, large, bald with only three hairs on his head, and he had yellowish eyes with a bit of red which gave him a slightly scarier look than he has. The neighbour was stomping around irritably for no apparent reason. The young man thought it was strange for about minute, but brushed it off like it was nothing.

"Greetings. My name is Woody Trickster. I hope we'll be good neighbours" he said, smiling and offered him a handshake.

However, the neighbour in response only stared at him for about a minute, and then walked away without saying a single word.

'How rude...' Woody thought to himself 'I think I have already picked the bad apple out of all of them... or maybe this one is just having a bad day.'

Meanwhile, someone was watching who happens to be a young lady who is almost as short as he is. She had slightly poofy brown hair and brown eyes filled with uncertainty. She was holding a watering can tightly.

'Oh... he's so nice...' she smiled sheepishly. That was her first impression on Woody.

Because of her daydreaming, she did not notice that he approached her.

"Hello."

"Oh! He-Hello...!" she was startled. Because to her, it looked like as if he appeared out of nowhere.

"Hey... Do I seem to bite? Don't worry, I don't!" he stated jokingly.

She giggled at his joke and put her hands over her mouth to cover the smile she had on.

"I'm Woody Trickster." he introduced himself "What's your name?"

There was an awkward pause for about a minute. It was awkward a lot more for the girl.

"She-Shelly Hawa-ward..." she finally stuttered uncomfortably and quietly.

"Excuse me?" he did not hear her well. One of the most common responses to anything a shy person says.

"Shelly." after another uneasy pause, she managed to at least say her name louder and clearer.

"Say... that guy over there looks ignorant and grumpy" he says as his eyes shifted to the middle-aged neighbour "Do you know his name?"

Mentioning him made Shelly freeze in place for a moment.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked.

"Y-Yes..."

After she recovered a little, she tries to tell him:

"Ro-Rott-wei-weiler-er..."

"Roadviper?" but Woody misheard it.

Shelly cleared her throat, and tries to speak slightly more understandably.

"Rottenwine?"

"No..." she replied.

Again, she attempted to say the name with more clarity.

"Wait... is his name Rottweiler?"

"Yes..."

"Well... he may appear to be ignorant and grumpy, but I'm sure he's just having a bad day."

This big optimism about such a thing made Shelly shook her head. She really wanted to warn him about Rottweiler, but she simply could not tell him about that neighbour out loud.

The following next days, Woody and Shelly got to know each other a little better. He had no trouble meeting new people from the neighbourhood and even left a good impression on them as well, since he was affable, jovial and outgoing.

However, those days would go normally or even great, if it was not for Rottweiler and his overall contemptibly obnoxious behaviour. As if he was the complete opposite of Woody.

Some of the nights were loud as Rottweiler sometimes turned the volume of his TV on maximum waking up half of the neighbourhood. If that was not noisy enough, his dog had random barking fits in the middle of those nights and then at the top of his lungs he shouted at it.

There was also a day, when he would litter Woody's yard with mostly beer cans like it was some sort of garbage dump to the loathsome pink-slipper-wearing barrel.

The pink-slipper-wearing barrel also **demanded** to "borrow" something from him. When he refused, he was threatened so out of fear he let him "borrow" it.

Rottweiler as well had the audacity to smoke his tobacco pipe outside in his own yard where his next-door neighbours had to breath those toxic fumes.

All of this was only the beginning... there are just so much wrong with the pink-slipper-wearing barrel. Numerous bad deeds were done by him in almost about a week that they could not be kept track of all of them.

Woody tried talking to him like a good neighbour. He asked him kindly and politely to stop whatever problem he is causing to him and the other people from the neighbourhood. Each time, all the young man got was an ear-splitting yelling or sometimes even insults from his neighbour. Rottweiler is just **that** "nice"...

Most people would lose their temper and move away. Even Rottweiler's other next-door neighbour did that. But Woody had more than enough patience to tolerate him. However, like everyone else he also had his limits. He even tried calling the police so they could deal with the neighbourhood menace. But after he tried talking to one of them, it was already clear that the police system was bad here. Oh, how lovely...

After all of this, it turned out that Woody's house was both the best and worst as it perfectly fitted to him, but it was next to Rottweiler's.

But are things going to get better? Well, only time will tell...


	2. Interview and preparation

On one fine day, birds were chirping, the sun was shining. Woody was relaxing on a chaise-lounge chair with a cocktail in his hand. This time, his mind was clear from worries, he let out a calm sigh. After that was when exactly things were about to go wrong...

The ground abruptly shook for a moment which startled him. At first it seemed a little like an earthquake when really it was Rottweiler on his motorcycle-like lawn-mower - so broken, it was emitting fumes out of it. Rottweiler mockingly laughed at him and he stepped on the gas. The contraption let out even more smoke, which made Woody cough a lot. When the air slightly cleared up, he stopped and felt really light-headed and dizzy. He quickly recovered, but it just got worse.

The neighbour's dog went through the hedge and started doing its business on Woody's flower garden. Woody of course, expressed disgust at this and he wanted to say something to make it stop. But he did not, mostly because the dog was barking really noisily. The young man was only annoyed...

Rottweiler scared him when he passed him by with the contraption that was still polluting the air, while he was howling with laughter. Only because of that swine's misbehaviour and rotten attitude - Woody felt misunderstood, even on the verge of tears...

'No... I shouldn't cry...' he thought to himself 'I'll only give him a new reason to make fun of me... and keep being a doormat to him.'

Those last words in his head suddenly caused him to finally snap - he lost the last drop of his patience.

"Hey! Mr. Rottweiler! We need to have a talk!" he shouted crossly at his neighbour, while he was just about to go back inside his ugly-looking house.

Nevertheless, the swine said only one jeering "Hah!" aloud... and then slammed the door behind him. At that certain moment, if he could, Woody would send him all the way to Pluto. That is how furious he was!

After about a minute, he calmed down a bit, but was still somewhat irritated. Woody took the newspaper that arrived. Shelly who just happened to be outside was looking at him with a sad face. She willed to help her friend, but didn't know how...

Angrily, the young man walked inside to sit on his chair and read the newspaper. He maybe made Shelly too worried, but he just needed some peace all by himself.

He even made for himself some tea for better effect. While flipping through the pages, Woody suddenly found an article:

'Ever wanted to be on TV? Sign up for JoWood Vienna and share your great idea for a show with us. Show the whole world who you really are.'

It looked like just as another awkward commercial with a smiling dog in golden circle as a logo. What a strange dog! It strangely resembled to one media company from America. It might be a coincidence. Either way, Woody got interested in this article. What really drove his attention was the last line.

'Show the world who you really are... Hmmm... Maybe... yeah!' he got an idea.

Something that would help him tell the people why he suffers so much. He quickly grabbed his phone and dialled the number given in the article. After a while he heard a male voice which sounded somehow between disinterested and desperate.

"Joe Deen from JoWood Vienna," sounded the introduction of the man on the phone. Woody tried to impress him by his best given speech.

"Hello, this is Woody Trickster. I would like to sign up to your studio."

"Alright and what's your idea for a show?"

"I would like to show the world the worst neighbour that no one has ever seen. The show can be about... playing pranks on him."

"… Playing pranks?" said precariously the man on the phone.

"Yes." agreed Woody.

A short silence was between the two, as if the idea sounded either too ridiculous or too ambitions to be executed. The young man only hoped that they will accept him. It's either that or he would have to live with that loud stinky neighbour until his brain explodes.

"… We should have an interview first at your house."

"Oh, I would like to!" Woody happily replied.

Finally a chance was given to him! He told his address and agreed with the meeting time at exactly an hour later.

In the meantime, Woody prepared the table with two chairs and some drink. It was almost an hour later as he checked his watch. He thought about preparing some speech before he arrives. At that moment, a knocking was heard at the door.

'Already? Right when it hit the last minute,' Woody thought to himself and went to open the door.

A tall man stood there with black vest and cap having black hair and brown eyes. His emotion was blank, perhaps concentrated on whatever was his job. Staring straight he prepared his hand to shake with the owner of the house… until he looked down and saw that the owner was shorter than him.

"…Woody Trickster?" was his first question. It was indeed the man from the call - Joe Deen.

"Yes, that's me. Welcome." greeted him the young man and shook hands with him.

Joe entered the house and after the closing of door he said:

"If it wasn't of your voice, I would assume I'm talking to some generic teenager."

That made Woody angry. His short appearance often made people around him mistaken him for a child. He never liked that, so even now he angrily replied:

"Is this how you treat people? Judging by their appearance?"

"Hahah! Of course not!" laughed Joe, realizing he went too far with his statement.

He smiled giving Woody assurance that he has no plan in disrespect. But the young man still felt kind of offended. Nevertheless, they both sat down on prepared chairs. The interview could start.

"So you mentioned your idea of playing pranks on your neighbour. Got any… vision for the execution of all this?" Joe asked the first question.

"Well, I thought I could prepare the pranks in his house when he is doing his daily routine. I can think of few ones right now." Woody explained.

There was a short pause before Joe asked the next one.

"Why would you like to work on this show?"

"I would do this... for revenge..." he replied, while trying not to delve too much into bad memories "because the neighbour is truly outrageous. I want to show his true face to the whole world."

The director was not too sure if he should take that answer seriously, but perhaps that was the "plot" of the show.

"I see... So are you used to be on camera?"

"I'm not a shy kind of person. In fact, I'm confident and outgoing!" Woody stated assuredly.

Joe was satisfied to know this. Next he asked:

"Do you have a sense of humour?"

He tried to think of something funny for a moment so could answer that.

"My neighbour doesn't wear a belt, because he doesn't need one. Every pair of trousers stay on all the time, but then he has trouble taking them off." he said facetiously.

Joe could not help but laugh at the joke. After he calmed down a bit, he inquired:

"Do you have any acting skills?"

"Wait..." Woody came into a shocking realization "You think this is all supposed to be acted?!"

"I'm not sure what you mean."

Now there is a misunderstanding, that needs to be cleared up.

"Well, didn't your advertisement said 'Show the world who you really are'?"

"Yes, and you did mention that you want to show your neighbour's true nature. Isn't that the plot of the show?"

"Plot? No, you don't understand! Everything is real, and he's more than a real jerk!"

At this moment, a familiar thunderous holler was heard from outside.

"Look, you'll understand what I mean." Woody showed Joe through a window what is going on.

"You freaking moron!" it was Rottweiler as he was yelling at the mailman "How dare you hitting my handsome face!"

"I'm sorry!" the mailman apologized "I had no idea you were going outside as I threw the newspaper on the door... It was an accident!"

"You're about to have an accident when I give you knuckle sandwich, you frigging twit!"

After Joe finally saw Rottweiler's rudeness and misbehavior, he understood the truth.

"Hmm... Interesting setup and great motivation." he was intrigued.

"Now do you see what I meant that everything is real?" Woody asked.

"Sure, I see a great potential in this show. Let's start it now with the first episode."

"N-now?!" Woody exclaimed, it was just all too sudden.

"It's either now or never. I'll call the camera crew to come here."

"But-but I can't start now!" he uttered nervously "I'm not quite prepared for it yet..."

"Listen... I know you want to take sweet revenge on that meatball next to you. So when you're given an opportunity - take it!" the director started encouraging him. "With my directing, everybody's going to see that guy's true face. I believe you're smart. Your own name must hide that special talent that produced this idea for a show."

'I suppose he's right' Woody thought to himself 'I better not miss an opportunity like this. It's play dirty or be bullied!'

"Okay... I'll take it." it only took him about a minute to say his decision.

"Perfect! I'll be easy on you this day. If the audience take this show, we'll officially start making it. If not, then I'm sorry to say, but it'll be no such luck."

"I understand."

"Good. I'll call the camera crew now."

"And I'll see if I can find anything useful."

"Alright, you do that. The more planned and prepared - the better." the director stated while dialing the number.

While Joe talks on the phone, Woody went to search around his house for anything mischief-worthy. He didn't find anything good, even when he asked himself if this or that could be used for tricks and if it could annoy his neighbour enough with it. But he eventually found a whoopie cushion in his bedroom, the one he got as a child.

'This should definitely be useful.' the young man thought 'I think I'll try to find something else.'

However, he did not have much time as knocking on the door was heard and Joe went to open it. Three guys with cameras and one woman with a laptop entered the house. All of them had clothing similar to Joe's. Woody immediately went downstairs to see who is there. He could not believe his eyes that the house was full of strange people he had never seen before.

"Nick, Michael, could you move this sofa over there?" said the woman with the laptop pointing to two guys, one red-headed and other one blonde with glasses.

Woody would stop them in doing so because it was his property, but knowing nothing about their style of work, he stayed quiet and watched how his comfortable house was turning into an office. The third guy with black hair opened one window and he pulled out something. Woody realized he was about to start smoking. He could not stand this, so he strictly said:

"Hey! No smoking in my house!"

The guy obeyed him and threw the cigarette he did not manage to light properly.

"Sorry." was his answer.

"Alright, Markus, prepare your camera. Nick, Michael, you two do as well," ordered Joe to his camera crew.

"Is Kelsie prepared as well?"

"Over here." replied the woman sitting on the sofa with the laptop.

"So, do you have anything prepared?" he asked Woody that.

"Yes, I do." was his response.

"Okay, I want you to go into the house and set up the pranks you have planned." he began explaining "You might come up with some when you get there. Let's say four pranks for this episode. Try to move around only on the ground and first floor. One thing stays important - you've got a risky job. So try to stay quiet and never disclose your presence. I say NEVER! Never show up to the neighbour or anyone in the house, never lean out of windows, never leave any messages, not even signatures. You must be as unnoticeable as a tiny fly. Got it?"

"Yes, got it."

"Then go. Good luck in there."

Since everything is now ready, Woody exited the house. While walking to Rottweiler's house, he thinks of other ways to make the stinker's life more than just terrible... or at the very least his day for now...

Rottweiler better watch out! Because from there on, he is about to get punished... with stealth and trickery!


	3. The first trick

**Author's note:** **I forgot to mention in the first place that in future chapters, there will be tricks from the console version (the one for NGC and Xbox) and some made-up ones. However, some of them are moved and organized to different episodes (or levels, or whatever you want to call them).** **That's just how we planned the tricks to be written into our fanfic. Oh, and the cover is now switched since SailorRaybloomDZ drew a better complete version of it.**

* * *

Woody was standing in front of Rottweiler's house. The ugly-looking house was in need of improvements really badly. It also looked somewhat like a haunted house which did not make things better, especially when Woody knew very well exactly who lived in there. He slowly opened the main door (which was not locked) and walked inside. He felt really uncomfortable as he entered the house of his enemy who not only stinks, but was also way stronger and bigger than him.

'I don't know what should I do. What can Rottweiler do at this moment? What if he sees me?' he thought to himself, slowly taking each step and looking around carefully.

He heard the sound of TV coming from a door. He peeked through the keyhole and he saw him - the big couch potato! Luckily, he was sleeping as Woody could tell by his snoring that was so loud that even windows would shatter.

'Oh thank goodness, he's asleep! I bet he won't wake up that easily as long as I don't enter the room. I might just look around the house without any worry.'

He was planning to use his whoopie cushion for the prank. It was just not right time to do that. So he opened another door that was next to what he assumed was door to living room. It looked like he just entered the bathroom, easily being told by the washbasin, bathtub and of course the toilet. While looking around he noticed some kind of picture on the window placed above the toilet. He quickly looked away the second he realized what that is.

'Disgusting! I can't believe I live next to a **pervert**!'

With red face, the young man tried to forget what he saw and checked the medicine cabinet above the washbasin. In there he found a superglue.

'Hm, maybe if I could use this for some door handle. Or I'll save it for later, I believe I still have time to look around a bit further.'

Leaving the bathroom he tried one more door that was at the end of the hall - the door to the kitchen. Again, the typical fridge, kitchen sink and microwave could not speak of other type of room. There was just one thing that was out of place. Some binoculars were standing on the window.

Curious Woody came to the window carefully so no one could see him from the outside. That would be a disaster if someone like Shelly saw him in Rottweiler's house. From the window he could see a rather nice view of nature.

'Huh, something is fishy about this choice of sight and binoculars...' he thought to himself.

But then he realized that besides nature there is also the house of Olga that could be seen. Woody almost never talked to this neighbour as she looked too provocative to him by having giant breasts and perfect shape of body. At that moment, he noticed her in the window preparing to take a shower. The thoughts of the picture in Rottweiler's bathroom came to him again, but with a good reason this time.

'So he likes to peep on women taking shower? Well, I'm going to set him some great contact lenses of the future,' the idea came into his mind.

He used the superglue that he kept in his pocket on the binoculars and the trap was set up.

'That will teach Rottweiler. Now... what else can I do here?' Woody thought to himself.

He looked at the microwave and remembered how once he put an egg in it as a child because he wanted a hard-boiled egg. He sure got yelled at by both parents, but then quickly forgiven by his lovely mother.

'Yeah, why not? I can just imagine Rottweiler getting really mad.' and so he looked in the fridge to find just a perfect looking egg.

He put it in the microwave and turned it on. After about a minute, the egg exploded creating a huge mess in there.

'I think the egg is done now!' he thought, grinning.

However, that grin quickly faded when he noticed something bad... no window-shattering snores were heard now.

'Did the old oaf wake up?' he wondered, feeling kind of scared of the thought.

That question was immediately answered when footsteps were heard instead. With a hurried pace, the young man left the room through the door that leads to the hallway.

'While he gets mad, maybe I can go to the living room and see what I could do there.' he assumed while walking to the other door.

When he entered the living room, this incredibly loud shout from the old oaf was overheard from the other room:

"What the Hell?! Why's my microwave freaking dirty?! Who or what did this?!" then he attempted to clean it. The keyword is **attempted** , because the mess in the kitchen appliance might be too much for him, so it may take awhile.

Woody tried to hide his snickering so he does not make a single sound. Then he glanced around. Like every living room, it had a TV and a sofa. They are both pretty old-looking. And there was also a piano, a plant and a filthy dark red rug. Either way, he suddenly had an idea.

'I know! I'll put the whoopie cushion on the sofa.' and so he did 'The neighbour is in for a big surprise when he sits down here.'

One of the most classic jokes ever. Yet... something else was missing and he even felt that as well. But then another idea came to his mind...

'What if I "fix" his TV antenna? I'll make sure I "help" him out with his little connection problem.'

Afterwards, Woody bent the antenna to make sure the TV's connection is from bad to worse to the point of having nothing but static on the screen. He even did that in Bugs Bunny style by tying it into a nice bow.

'Rottweiler will receive all new programmes now that I modified his antenna.' he thought to himself with a self-satisfying smile.

The only thing left to do was to make sure that his neighbour is angry enough. So he left the room and hid in the wardrobe just in case - better be safe than sorry.

Meanwhile, Rottweiler already got his eyes stuck to the glued binoculars which made him look incredibly ridiculous. After about a minute, the old oaf somehow pulled them out of his eyes. He was even madder to the point of spewing out swears and screams out of his mouth. When he entered the living room, the very first things he saw was both the TV's ruined connection and the bent antenna.

"What?!" the fatso could not believe his eyes as he ran towards the device "My TV! Why?!"

The idiot was now so mad he stomped around a lot and spew out swears and screams again like a sailor. He attempted to untie the antenna and fix it. With some effort, he did it successfully... well, kind of. The connection was slightly poorer than before with a bow as a gift, but it still worked. Perhaps he will calm down when he goes to sit down? That is why the idiot did so without thinking. Then a loud "poot" sound was instantly heard from his behind, which made his face redden like a tomato from embarrassment. So he glanced around just in case if anyone saw or heard him just now.

It took him about a moment to realize, that he did not made the sound, but that he sat down on a whoopie cushion. Now he was really furious, like an angry seagull that did not get any bread crumbs. At this point, his mood was so sour that a lemon would feel jealous. He even almost broke his back and gasped nervously for air. This time, Rottweiler will most likely stay in this more-sour-than-a-lemon mood for quite awhile.

All of that commotion reached Woody's ears that he tried so hard to contain his laughter. There did not seem to be anything else left to do, so he got out of his hiding spot and walked outside. The young man could still hear his neighbour's thunderous hollering.

'That wasn't that bad. Stupid Rottweiler didn't even hear me!' Woody thought to himself, feeling satisfied.

He quickly left Rottweiler's yard and went into his house. There he waited Joe with excitement on his face.

"That was great, Woody! We all had a great time watching you!" he clapped.

Woody felt really proud of himself for such performance. He did wonder about one thing:

"Is this good enough for the series?"

"We'll see when we show this to the audience."

Joe ordered his crew to pack up everything they brought and put everything on the original place including the sofa.

The house looked just like before they entered it. Woody was desperately watching how they were leaving. He really wanted to know if his show was going to continue or not. The answer was not available just yet. Joe stopped just in the front door and said:

"I'll give you a call when the show gets accepted. See you!"

At last Woody was alone. Everything around him seemed like nothing has changed, no one strange had ever visited him. He did have a satisfaction over the pranks he played on his cruel neighbour, but he felt like he did that for nothing.

* * *

It was evening in the neighbourhood. Woody was sitting in the kitchen while staring at an empty plate. He did not have mood for food. He still wondered about his show. Is it going to be accepted? Is the audience going to like it? He wanted to be understood, so far only few people did. His kind friend Shelly and Joe. As he was sadly looking at nothing and thinking about today's event, suddenly he heard a knock on the door. He went to open it. There was Shelly standing on the doorstep holding something. Just from the sight of her made his mood slightly lift up.

"Hello, Shelly. What brings you here at this hour?" he asked.

"Hi, Woody. I came to see how are you doing..." she was genuinely concerned.

There was an awkward silence for about a moment as Woody did not want to talk about his problem.. Especially considering Rottweiler being the obvious reason of his current sulking... but at the same time he didn't want to be rude to his friend so he replied:

"I could've been better... but thanks for your concern..."

"Well... I brought you some cookies. I baked them a while ago.." and she handed him a paper bag full of them.

Still, Woody didn't have an appetite for anything right now, but he really appreciated the kind gesture of hers. Shelly was usually the one who needed cheering up. Of course, she did not like seeing her friend down, so she would do anything she could to cheer him up.

"I hope you know if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here for you." she assured him.

"I'll be fine. There's no need to worry about me..." but it was apparent that he was not in the mood to talk.

Shelly saw it in his eyes and decided to go into her house. Woody closed the door and sat on the sofa. Suddenly his phone that was put on the table near him started ringing. Immediately it was picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hello there!" it was Joe Deen "How are you?"

"Hmph..." was Woody's grumpy answer.

"I know what you want to know. I presented the episode and your idea…"

Woody's patience was slowly dying on those words. The way Joe was slowly going with the answer he wanted to hear only bad news were expected.

"…they accepted it!"

"Really?!" he could not believe his ears.

"I knew you would be excited. We're now officially making the show!" the director proudly declared.

This left a big impact on now the host of the show.

"I'm beyond excited! Thank you!"

"I should thank you for giving such great idea. I'll see you in two days. I hope you'll be prepared for the next shooting."

"I definitely will be! See you then!"

Then they both hung up. All of Woody's effort into playing tricks on Rottweiler was surely not for nothing. In fact, it was incredibly worth it, even the prankster knew it and was proud of it!


	4. Camera crew introduction

It was sunny forenoon in the neighbourhood. Woody was cutting hedge dividing his and Rottweiler's yard. He had his favourite song going through his mind as he was looking forward to the next shooting of "Neighbours from Hell" episode. His happy thoughts were interrupted by Roger Rottweiler himself standing in front of him looking with a sarcastic smile.

"Cutting hedge, huh?" said the neighbour.

Woody got scared, he saw the big old guy as a merciless punisher. He forgot for a while that his next-door neighbour does not know about his job and either that he is doing pranks on him. Roger started to tear out the twigs with leaves from the hedge.

"Hey, stop it! It was just perfect!" yelled angrily the young man finally realizing the situation. That only made the fatso laugh.

"Well, now it's not!" and he threw the teared off twig on the little neighbour "You can do it all over again!"

Bursting out of laughter he went into his house. This would be the moment where Woody would feel down just like any other day. But now that he knew he has a job of being a prankster, he only felt slightly angry. This day was going to be the next shooting, so he thought to himself:

'Still ruling like the devil? I wouldn't be surprised if the one was your parent. Well, just you wait, Rottweiler. You'll soon learn from me - Woody Trickster!'

At this time, his kind neighbour Shelly was taking out the trash and she noticed that he had that twig in his hair.

"Woody, you have something in your hair," she pointed it out to him.

She could already tell that their obnoxious neighbour had something to do with it. Woody pulled it out of his hair while feeling annoyed at Roger. But while returning into his house, he smiled to himself. He knew Roger was stupid and that he couldn't even find the intruder in the household who pranked him that day.

Woody checked his phone and found a message from none other than his director Joe. It said he should expect the crew arriving around 1:00 pm. He still had two hours left so he decided to look for some tools worth for pranking. He found a saw perfect for sawing wood, perhaps also perfect for legs of wooden chairs and such. The big trick of the day was planned. He then also prepared some drinks for the crew because he was a small gentleman after all. Finally a knocking on the door was heard. Full of joy the young man went to open immediately. The director stood there and said this like an announcement:

"Today's host - Woody Trickster! The great prankster of the neighbourhood!" it seemed like these two already knew about each other, almost like best buddies.

But of course one saw in the partner a great material for show while the other one saw someone giving him a chance to be understood among people.

"So how are you doing? Are you prepared for the real deal?" asked the director going inside with the rest of the crew.

"I'm beyond excited. I have something prepared for today," replied Woody.

"That's the spirit! Now that you're finally part of our crew," continued Joe while having his hand on Woody's shoulder, "I believe it's time to introduce you other members." he then proceeded in leading him to each person of the crew and introducing them. First he started with the brownred-haired woman with blue eyes. Woody carefully listened to his words.

"That's Kelsie the editor. She's a smart eye noticing and focusing on any strange detail in movie making. Her guesses of people's personalities based on their look are impressive but she will be glad to find out more about you through a talk. However she's more open towards close friends so you better show her enough respect to win that title. She saves rude words as weapon for her defence."

Next was redhead with green eyes and bright smile. His greeting to Woody was:

"Hi! You rock, man! I enjoy the pranks you do."

"That's Nick. He is a cameraman and also the music composer. Very talented musician, out of all of us he is always in good mood. He's also very talkative, he will tell you a lot about most of his favourite bands and singers. But music is not the only theme he brings up, he'll find something else to talk about as well. He can't be any more edgy than he is now."

The blonde guy with green eyes was sitting and cleaning his glasses.

"Another of the cameramen is Michael. He is only short sighted, unable to see things far away clearly. He is mostly polite and respectful towards others. He is perhaps the only one of us who doesn't swear. He's not all that boring. He admires comics about superheroes and from reading those he has good talent for taking interesting shots."

Next one preparing his camera had black hair and brown eyes.

"That's Markus. He's the one that wanted to have a smoke first time coming here. He had a lot of things going on before joining us which I'm not gonna mention in front of him. All I'll tell you is that he will give you a hand when you ask him nicely, he'll be glad to help. But you better not mess around with him, he has little patience. He is not afraid showing his anger if you do so."

Then they stopped in front of two guys, both brown-haired with brown eyes.

"At last we have the twins - Thomas and Boris. They're the best cameramen out there. They hardly ever speak so you have to get used to their language through facial expressions and gestures. They've been always like that."

Confused Woody looked at both of the twins. They indeed looked like one another! There was nothing to tell them apart.

"How can I tell who is who?" he asked.

"Oh, that's easy," laughed Joe. "They seem the same, but really, they're so different from each other. Thomas is right-handed while Boris left-handed; Thomas prefers coffee, Boris cappuccino on the other hand; Thomas blinks more often than Boris; the list goes on."

Joe then ordered his crew to prepare themselves for the shooting. In the meantime, Woody was curious about Kelsie just sitting on his own sofa with a laptop. How does she do her job as an editor?

"Excuse me." he still wasn't familiar with the people he was working with. "How do you do the editing?"

Kelsie willed to show him on her laptop.

"I have all cameras displayed here in each window. The one with green frame is the one that goes into video."

"Ah, so you're making the episode right away!" Woody immediately understood how it worked.

"Pretty much." replied Kelsie.

Then another question popped up into his mind.

"Don't you mind looking at horrid and ugly people like Rottweiler?"

She only showed a wide smile and said:

"I've seen horrid things before, so no."

Finally when the others were prepared, Joe called Woody because he had something important to tell him.

"You have to occasionaly look at the camera and so to the audience. They have to know what you're doing. Also you need a character. Do your own gesture that will become iconic."

Woody thought for few seconds and then he came up with a gesture of moving his hands like guns in front of him while slightly raising his foot from ground.

"I would call it... cowboyish dance," he said while doing so.

"Heheh, you must like cowboy movies." commented Joe on Woody's dance.

"If they're humorous."

"I think this one is great. Listen, I would appreciate if you kept moving around the rooms you did last time. Because of the number of cameras we have, we cannot afford more scenes. Just remember - even small things can leave a great impact, so any great prank can give us good rating. It would help the views and so our budget."

Woody then showed his saw he had put near the front door.

"I have this one where I could use this saw for Rottweiler's chair."

"That sounds brilliant! But even that, it still would be great if you did three other pranks as well. I believe you can do it."

Woody agreed and left his lovely home taking the saw with him. He was fully prepared for today's real episode. Before he closed the door behind, Joe mentioned one more thing:

"The **'Neighbours from Hell'** show can begin!"

After that, Woody finally lost the eye contact with closing the door.


	5. TV afternoon

Woody quietly entered the house and did his cowboyish dance gesture to greet the audience. With slow and quiet steps he approached the door that he remembered from his last visit - the door to living room. Through the keyhole he saw the fat dirty meatball sitting on the sofa slurping a bottle of beer every now and then. His current activity was no surprise to Woody. Just usual watching TV with football on.

'What a lazy couch potato you are, this is all you can do!' thought Woody with pleasant smile and eyes showing no worry but rather potential for great fun. 'Well don't worry, I'll enliven your moment to the point where everyone will have a good laugh! Minus you of course.'

His saw in his hand was useless in this situation.

'Time will bring an answer' he thought to himself, because Rottweiler's pack of beer next to his sofa was not eternal.

It had only two bottles left and this fatso surely could not survive one whole program without his precious "water of life". He entered the room next to the living room which was bathroom as he still remembered. He also remembered not to look at the window above the toilet. While examining the medicine cabinet he found a laxative. "Must be dissolved in liquid" was written there.

'This is just what I need!' thought to himself Woody. 'But then when nature calls... I must do something with this toilet,' he looked at it.

The toilet bowl had a very narrow drain so he got an idea. He took the toilet paper out of its holder and started unrolling it. Everything went into the toilet. And hey, what's that lying near it? Some magazines and newspaper. Newspaper lying there, that's understandable, but the content of those magazines even shown in the front covers ruined Woody's precious taste. He angrily took those as well and threw them into the toilet.

'Naughty pervert, have some respect towards women!' he wished he could grab that picture on the window as well, but he was unfortunately too short to reach it.

The toilet was perfectly blocked anyway. He intentionally left the newspaper alone for a bigger surprise for the old oaf. Either way it looked pretty old, like three months maybe. It would be funny to imagine if this was his only paper available.

Woody then exited the bathroom. Knowing that his neighbour was still in the living room, he just walked into the kitchen. There he saw the pack of 6 bottles of beer, which weren't opened yet. He had to make sure not to leave any mess behind him, so he carefully opened them one by one with as much strength as he had. Finally, Woody put laxative in all of them so that each choice of Roger was the right one. He also made sure that the camera that was very well hidden in his house saw everything he did. Then he went to his safe spot which was of course the wardrobe.

Meanwhile, Roger barely got up from his sofa to get another beer from the kitchen. After a few minutes, he got back and sat back down thinking that he'll enjoy the whole lazy day... but he was wrong. The moment when the fatso drank a lot of the laxative beer, it immediately kicked in - his stomach acting up very much. Nature was calling for the old oaf!

Finally, when the old man ran from the living room to the bathroom, Woody got out of the wardrobe just to start the big prank of the day. He immediately started sawing the legs of the sofa. He knew it would probably take a bit longer than the rest of his tricks. However, it didn't matter, because Roger's consuming problem would keep him from going into the living room for long enough. He was in the bathroom... doing his business while reading the newspaper. When the old oaf was done, he was going to get some toilet paper, but that's when he noticed that there wasn't any... at all. It was simply for this reason alone why he was so mad, his loud shouts reached to almost all the rooms in the house. It took a minute or two for the grump calmed down a little. He looked at the newspaper and had an idea. The grump clearly didn't liked it, it was the only paper in the room.

"Do I seriously need to use this instead of toilet paper?" he crossly asked himself "Just my luck..."

After he was done using the newspaper in that different way, he flushed the toilet... or at least tried to. Roger didn't notice the toilet was blocked up, until it began making loud noises and anything that previously went into the toilet, started popping out from it. Roger began angrily screaming again and it was even louder.

"Oh that's kind of unfortunate. I wasted all the toilet paper you had there." he sarcastically said this knowing that the neighbour wouldn't be able to hear it.

Finally, he did few more moves with the saw and the sofa was a bit wobbly. It was prepared for the neighbour. But before he left the living room, he decided to mess up the TV antenna again. First it was a present, this time neighbour shall receive zigzag feelers. Woody then went to the kitchen instead of the hall, because Rottweiler already had beer next to the sofa. Why would he go to the kitchen again? When he closed the door behind him, he already heard that fat oaf entering the living room by the other door. It was a good thing Woody didn't attempt to use that door. At least now he had a chance to witness all that circus performance through the keyhole. Roger surprised by seeing the TV antenna bent yet again started angrily grumbling. While fixing it, not a single word could be understood. He sounded like a grumpy talking toad. At last when he thought things couldn't get any worse, they did get worse. He sat on his sofa which made cracking sounds so strange to him that it made him worried. Then the last two most sawed legs broke, making Roger do a back somersault. Even his shoes flied away from his feet. It was a great stunt performed by an old man who most likely had never done any stunts before. Shocked and confused he was looking at the now broken sofa and wondered:

"How could my sofa break so easily now?!"

Woody witnessing all this would burst out laughing, but then he would easily get in trouble. He only hid his big grin with hand and thought to himself:

'Outstanding, Rottweiler! You deserve a gold medal for the best lazy fat man stunt award!'

His neighbour was so enraged, he started chewing on one of his slippers and punched his own head like a gorilla a few times.

So now there was nothing else left to be done for Woody. The mischievous hero did his iconic gesture as his victory dance and as a conclusion to the episode. He then lastly exited the grump's ugly house, and walked back to his house. Another well done prank for a silly buffoon.

When Woody entered the house, he greeted Joe and the camera crew and they greeted back. Joe was happy with his success so his words were:

"Great job, Woody! You're comedy gold!"

"Thanks, Joe!"

"Say, what would you think of a chat with coffee?" the director asked.

"I prefer tea."

"Either way, just two of us have a small talk or maybe even someone else from this crew. After we finish any episode or perhaps the other day."

"That doesn't sound bad. Of course it shouldn't be during night time." he told him.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of the dark?"

"I'm afraid the next morning I won't be at my house when Shelly can knock on the door." Woody explained.

"Shelly?" Joe questioned.

"She is my friend. A really kind neighbour. It would worry her if she found out that I suddenly disappeared."

"I see… I won't refuse your requirements."

Afterwards, Joe ordered his camera crew to pack up and put everything on the original place as usual.

"We'll see you again soon." the director said "Bye!"

"Bye!"

Woody was alone again, but this time he knew that what he did today was absolutely worth it. However, he felt that something was missing... The prankster was sure that the future episodes will be more difficult to succeed at them. He took a paper and a black marker pen from his chest of drawers, sat on his chair and started drawing. He drew four rectangles representing the four rooms he was in.

'I need a map to orientate myself in the neighbour's house.' he thought to himself while making different notes into each of the rectangles. 'There is the wardrobe, my safe spot, near that there's the chest of drawers with different stuff in it, coat hanger... do I remember anything else seeing in the hall?'

When he couldn't think of anything else for that particular room, he moved on to another one. Finally he wrote everything he could on that map.

'Cameras are sure expensive, I have no doubts about that. In order to make more successful episodes I need a plan for each one. This will help me a lot in finding the needed equipment for pranks.'

Now the prankster was more prepared for any of the future episodes. And whatever happens in any of them, it's up to him.


	6. Birthday surprises

It was sunny day in Blue Highway with clear clouds and birds chirping. In front of the blue house, Shelly was digging a hole with small dipper while Woody was near holding a flower in pot.

"Thanks for helping me planting the flowers again." said Woody.

Shelly only gave him a smile on her face, as if she meant to say 'we always help each other'. She had good gardening skills, so she knew how deep the hole was supposed to be. The atmosphere near these two was peaceful, not even their grumpy neighbour seemed to bother them, almost as if he didn't exist in their lives. Before they were even finished, Roger Rottweiler passed by, holding a full BILLA bag just returning from shopping. He stopped when he finally noticed them, giving them a mean glare. Shelly got scared, but Woody not afraid of this stupid big buffoon got in front of her like a protector.

"Is there any problem, Rottweiler?" he asked.

Roger looked jealous, almost like he didn't like seeing two happy people together. He only answered:

"Heh! You'll get bored of her pretty soon."

With the same mean expression he went inside. Shelly only looked down with sadness in her face. Woody finally noticed her nice neighbour. He tried to find appropriate words to cheer her up.

"Don't worry, Shelly. His choice of words is always negative. You're a kind friend."

She knew about that, but either way she had doubts. She turned her head away as a sign of shame. Woody only smiled and placed his hand on her cheek.

"Cheer up! You don't have to look away from me. Or am I too ugly for you?" he still kept his cheerful expression while looking at her.

Shelly couldn't help it but smile back.

"No, you're not ugly." both of them felt much better when looking at each others eyes.

During this eye contact they exchanged the thoughts such as "you make my day much better" and "let's finish planting". After a while they continued their previous activity that stayed paused.

Later that day, Woody already knew when Joe's crew was going to arrive. To fill up his time he went for the search of equipment. He found scissors and his marker pen that he used for drawing map, but he wasn't sure if those two items would be useful. He decided to search further. Eventually he found something he thought would be for great use. First was a strong duct tape and the other one was a firework forgotten from the last New Year's Eve.

"Hmm, a firework? That could definitely destroy Rottweiler's mood!" he said to himself.

Just when he said it, he heard a knocking on the door.

"They already came? I must have lost track of time." he went to open and let the crew inside.

Joe already asked him with grin on face:

"How is our famous host doing?"

"I'm prepared for the show. But I did forget to prepare drinks for you." Woody immediately wanted to bring some glasses, but Joe stopped him by catching his shoulder.

"Don't bother with that. We can serve ourselves, it's nothing that hard."

While the crew moved furniture around to create the workplace, Joe said Woody some good news.

"Our show is doing great at this point. The viewership is slowly growing and even on our official website the first two episodes get multiple views in just one day."

This made the young man pleased.

"That sounds great! Finally everyone can see how Rottweiler is a cruel and disrespectful person. He sure deserves this kind of reputation."

"And you are also getting popular. You've got dedicated fans willing to see you again." the director happily added.

"Fans? I… if I have to be honest, it's kind of hard for me to believe. Most people I've come across only look at me funny."

"In the world of television, you'll learn that unique equals special. That includes your appearance." after that statement Joe moved on to check if all the cameramen were ready for shooting.

Woody still had some little time to learn how his show is created. He approached Nick who just finished chewing his gum and threw it into trash bin.

"Hey, Nick, how do you do your job as a music composer?" Woody inquired.

"Well, before the episode is released, I watch it and then make a music for it. I have to rewatch it if the music fits or not. But I don't mind! I still have a good laugh at your pranks!" Nick explained in a cheerful way.

The crew by now was fully done preparing for the show's new episode.

"You know what to do, right?" Joe asked Woody.

"Four tricks on the neighbour. Quietly and without any witness."

"Let's go a bit further. How about one more trick for the sake of fun?" the director suggested.

"Sure! I don't see why not?" he agreed.

The prankster was leaving his house while they wished him good luck. A few minutes later he reached the enemy's house, and he opened the entrance door as silently as possible.

After entering the ugly building he looked at the camera hidden in the window of his house and greeted audience with his cowboyish dance gesture. His expression changed from pleased to surprised, because something strange hit his nose - a smell of something baking.

'Mmm… Smells like a cake. But Rottweiler can't bake, can he?' Woody took a peek through the keyhole of the door to kitchen, and to his surprise he did indeed see Roger just taking out the cake from the oven.

Really? For such a clumsy partially blind old man he did seem to know how to bake. Or he still needed to see a recipe… that could work. Woody's curiosity grew just by looking at the old man's expression. He smiled like he just heard some great news. His smile was creepy considering his face was still of an angry Rottweiler (the dog of course). He also did few dancing moves with his hips while humming and walking to the BILLA bag put further from the oven.

'Surely he must be in great mood. But what could be the reason behind this?' wondered the little hero.

Suddenly he noticed the neighbour pulling out a packet of candles from the bag.

'Candles? Is it someone's birthday today? Who would celebrate with this greedy buffalo?!' everything got clear once Roger started singing:

"Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me…"

'Now I see.' Woody smiled pleasantly. 'Our neighbour is going to celebrate his birthday with his best friend - himself. What a miserable way to spend such a special day like that. Good thing that I came just in time, I'll prepare for him one big surprise that will literally blow his mind!'

Before preparing his great prank of the day, he decided to explore the other rooms in case of finding anything useful. He first checked the living room. Not much interesting hit his eyes, not the TV, sofa or even piano. There was an iron prepared for ironing though. If only there was a good use for it… Woody also noticed a hole in the wall.

'Well, apparently Rottweiler also has rats as pets. I believe he is feeding them…' he peeked into the hole '…with a mousetrap. Of course.'

Sure rats have no welcome in the house, but this is what happens when you don't clean it properly. Woody stopped thinking as he realized no voice or steps could be heard in the kitchen. He peeked through the keyhole and he didn't see anyone there. Only the cake sat on a small table. Where did the neighbour go? He then heard noises coming out of the hall. Coming closer to the hall door it was clear Roger opened his mailbox and scrabbled through the letters. He then angrily mumbled something to himself while closing the mailbox. He came to the old telephone and dialled. Waiting for about a minute he hung up. His expression changed from irritated to sadly disappointed.

"Momma doesn't pick up…" after that statement he returned to the kitchen.

His birthday cake still needed to be decorated. This gave Woody chance to go into the hall and examine the mailbox. All he could find there were the bills for the electricity and heat, certainly no postcards. It didn't surprise the young man at all, but then he remembered the mousetrap he saw earlier.

'That would definitely work for the prank! But then such a pain should be treated…'

He remembered that the medicine cabinet in the bathroom had a red cross on it, so he headed there. Not surprisingly he found plasters there. This gave him another great idea. He pulled out the duct tape he had in pocket and using a pair of scissors he also found in the cabinet he made really sticky plasters.

"These plasters will cover the injury for a looong time, definitely waterproof." he said, also showing to the hidden camera what he was doing.

He put the new plasters into the cabinet.

'Phew, making pranks is such a hard work.' thought to himself Woody while wiping the sweat out of his head with hand 'And I wouldn't even dare to wash out my sweat in this washbasin. I bet the soap isn't that great either. Rottweiler's dirty hands surely got rid of the cleaning effect of this bar of soap.'

While thinking to himself he came up with the idea of putting the soap into Roger's cake. Surely the cake was missing one more ingredient. But as soon as he grabbed the bar, it slipped out of his hand and ended up on the ground. Trying to take it even carefully, he didn't seem to actually carry it into the kitchen.

'You sure are slippery… You can stay in the bathroom then.' he decided, and moved on to the hall.

Back in the living room he saw through the keyhole that the neighbour already finished the decorating of his cake. Wide cylinder cake covered in chocolate with final touch of small puffs of whipped cream looked delicious, but knowing that it was made by Rottweiler's hands, Woody didn't have the desire of tasting it. Ever. Rottweiler finally left the kitchen to check if either his mother or someone else remembered his birthday. Woody then put his firework into the box of candles.

'You better make your last wish, Rottweiler!' he thought to himself.

After that thought he looked through the keyhole of the hall's door - Roger was still trying to call his mother again, but with no answer.

'If only I could do some sort of prank involving that phone... but how?'

He did remember of putting a mousetrap into the mailbox, but what about the phone? Was there anything that could work for a prank? He decided to find the answer back in the living room. When he noticed the iron awaiting for ironing, an idea was just created in his mind. He picked it up with one hand and carefully picked up the mousetrap with other hand. Carrying two different items that were somewhat dangerous was difficult for the hero. Yet still he managed to carry them into the hall, first switching on the iron and putting it on the phone as its handle. While doing that he noticed a picture hanging on the wall near the telephone. In the picture there was an old ugly woman looking very similar to Rottweiler.

'Oh my GOD! Who is this scary hag? Is that supposed to be Rottweiler's mother? She looks like from a horror movie!'

Finally he placed the mousetrap into the mailbox.

"This will surely help trimming Rottweiler's nails nicely." he said it not that loud so he wouldn't get noticed. Then he hid himself in the wardrobe.

In the kitchen Roger was prepared for celebrating by putting a small party hat on his head. He then pulled out the biggest "candle" from the box and kindled it on the cake.

The old oaf was about to sing "Happy Birthday" to himself again, but suddenly the firework exploded leaving almost nothing from the cake, except the chocolate frosting. So what was left from the cake was more of a pancake now, and the old oaf was not happy about that... at all.

"My cake! My cake is ruined!" he whined thunderously like an overgrown baby.

After a few minutes, the grump got tired. When he calmed down a little, he decided to call his mother. He needed someone close to cheer him up. Without a notice, he picked up the "phone" and pressed it against his ear. The grump screamed and accidentally dropped the iron on his foot. Oh, what a painful experience for him! He was also in a great deal of rage. He was angrily stomping around, but because his foot hurt he was limping like he was some sort of clumsy duck. A bit later when Roger was slightly less mad, he picked up the phone for real and tried to call his mother while hoping that she would improve his mood. Alas, no answer yet again... which is why he felt even gloomier.

So instead he went to rummage through the mailbox again. Maybe someone finally sent him a postcard? That would brighten his day at least a little. However, as soon as the grump stuck his hand in there... it was just one heck of a pain because of the moustrap. Since his hand was injured, he went running to the bathroom to get some plasters. But shortly after Roger entered the bathroom, he slipped over the bar of soap.

"Can't I at least get a stupid plaster without hurting myself for once?!" he yelled loudly as he barely got up.

Finally he reached the medicine cabinet. He pulled out what he believed were the plasters. While using them on injured fingers he was about to leave the bathroom. Unfortunately for him he seemed to have forgotten about the soap still lying on the floor. He slipped again and in addition one of the plasters got stuck on his left eyebrow. When he pulled it, he realized that those weren't ordinary plasters. More like depilation tape! It not only hurt, but also a bit of eyebrow was gone. That was more than enough for Roger's rage to unleash. He started yelling like an angry ogre over the loss of his own facial hair. No room was here for silence.

There didn't seem to be any tricks left to be done, so Woody got out of the wardrobe and concluded the episode with his iconic gesture to the audience. Another job well done!

He left the house and quickly got to his yard. Nobody saw him, which was only good. But then Woody's kind neighbour Shelly got out of her house with her watering can.

"Hello, Woody!" she greeted him.

Woody greeted back with a simple "hello". He didn't know what to say.

"Did you hear all that scream coming from Rottweiler's house? What could possibly go into his mind?" started Shelly.

The young man only grinned as he remembered almost everything what happened to that old oaf today. The confused friend expected explanation from him.

"I saw Mr. Rottweiler how he slipped on a bar of soap." said Woody. Maybe he said too much.

"Oh my! How do you know it was soap?" asked Shelly.

"I..." Woody stopped at this sentence. 'She doesn't know about my job… If I ever told her about it, would she be happy? Would she still see me as a polite man?…' he thought about it for a while.

He knew Shelly was a kind and gentle person and so she had the same thoughts about him. Someone would find it stupid that a gentleman does pranks on his neighbour even when it's for revenge. It just doesn't sound usual. What if Shelly would be disappointed of her friend who she thought was polite and respectful? He didn't want to lose her. So he chose what he thought was the best option: create excuses far away from actual truth.

"I saw it while looking through my window."

Even though it would be rare to see such thing happen, Shelly didn't question it, nor she had reason to find logic in it. She only giggled hiding her smile with hand. And when she was happy, Woody was too. Both had a good laugh at the funny story. At last Woody headed to his house and Shelly started watering her flowers. Once inside, it was already clear that the crew was already packing the equipment and moving furniture to its original place. Joe was obviously proud of prankster's performance, so far he had no complaints. While everyone was busy with reordering the house, Woody asked Joe:

"How did you actually come here?"

"By van." the director replied.

"And where did you park the van?"

"Where nobody would think of checking. No worries."

"I wouldn't like the other neighbours seeing you visiting my house with all the equipment you bring here." Woody was still feeling kind of worried about it.

"I am aware we don't fit into this place, that's why we always look around to avoid witnesses. Even our van is completely white without any logo of our studio." Joe clarified things for him.

"I find your logo kind of funny. It reminds me of one media company." said Woody.

"We call him Mocking Gossipy Max the dog!" Nick stated jestingly, the others laughed.

"Enough of joking." said strictly Joe, it meant that everyone should already go. Everyone said 'bye' as they left the house. Joe was the last one in the door. "See you later!"

Woody said "bye" back to him. That was the shooting of another episode of "Neighbours from Hell". While it might be the end of the episode, the show still goes on. More pranks and surprises are going to be revealed very soon. We might also learn something more about our star Rottweiler that we didn't know about.

* * *

 **Author's note: The prank with the iron was from the first level/episode of the console version, but was changed and moved to here because it originally didn't made sense. While the one the duct tape is purely made up.**

 **And another thing, the writing progress of this fanfic will be slower mostly because I'm very busy lately. But don't worry, it won't get** **abandoned.**


	7. Pie day

It was 8:30 am at Vienna. It was quite busy outside with cars driving everywhere and people going to work. In one of the tall buildings was the place of JoWood Studio. Joe had his own office, then there was the room for the rest of the crew where they could all discuss their ideas. In that room, everyone from the crew waited for their director. Markus was smoking near a window like he usually was. On the radio, they talked about today's national Pie Day, but barely anyone paid attention. Michael while cleaning his glasses only rolled his eyes after listening closely to the information of the day. He notified:

"Pie Day is actually on January 23rd. I can't believe they made up this nonsense for this season."

Thomas and Boris sat next to him around one table and both nodded as a sign of agreement.

"Why, I would like to have a piece of pie!" said cheerfully Nick sitting behind his personal desk.

Markus only retorted:

"You know, Michael, there are people who will to fool others for their benefit."

"Oh gosh, I hate these kind of people!" face-palmed Michael.

Kelsie was in the other room which was smaller and served as a kitchen. While making drinks for her colleagues, she heard this conversation through opened door. She wanted to join in with a reasonable question:

"Then why do you guys listen to this channel every morning?"

"That was Nick's choice!" replied loudly Markus so she could hear it.

Nick got awkwardly shocked and tried to explain:

"Hey, hey! I'm not listening to the stuff they're saying! They choose quite the catchy songs in their music sequence."

The twin cameramen had nothing to say as they just looked at Nick with blank faces. Then Kelsie finally showed herself from the door.

"Thomas, we're out of black coffee. Would you mind having something different?"

This information didn't please Thomas at all. He angrily hit the table with both hands with serious expression. His twin brother tried to calm him down along with Michael. Nick thought to himself for a short time and suddenly said:

"Man, I bet Woody is still in his pyjamas right now!"

The other guys laughed a little at this thought, except for Kelsie who had doubts about this possibility.

"No surprise, he's already at the workplace." acknowledged Markus.

"I'd try to call him just for fun!" was Nick's idea and he dialled the number on his phone that could be found on a notice-board with other numbers of the crew members. The unsure female editor asked:

"Are you sure about that? He lives in a neighbourhood unlike us."

"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure he won't mind." he replied while waiting with the phone on ear "Besides, it's already 8:45, a perfect time for an average man to wake up."

In Blue Highway it seemed pretty calm everywhere. Woody was already awake sitting in his kitchen still wearing pyjamas. He was eating a bowl of cereals while also reading newspaper. Such quiet moment was appreciated in the place where that one neighbour could make a lot of noise. The silence didn't last long as Woody's phone suddenly rang.

"Hello?" he picked up.

"Hi there! It's me, Nick!"

The call quite surprised the young man.

"Hello, Nick. How did you get my phone number?"

"Eeeh... from Joe!" was a short answer from Nick.

"Oh, okay. Why are you calling me at this time anyway?"

"Say, are you still wearing pyjamas?"

"Excuse me?" the random question shocked Woody.

It came out of nowhere! He then heard what he could make out Markus saying:

"Nick, you're an idiot…" and Kelsie saying something unclear to his ear.

Afterwards Nick tried to explain his weird attitude.

"No, no, no, I'm just asking. Don't be shocked! I made a bet with Markus and Kelsie and it involves you being in pyjamas right now."

"Oh, is that it?" Woody calmed down a bit.

He was slowly getting used to his colleagues, naturally he also tried to adapt to their humour.

"Well, if this does satisfy you, I'm in pyjamas just having breakfast."

"Ha! I knew it! Told ya!" said Nick to Kelsie who only replied:

"Sure, whatever."

Woody of course didn't know what was up with that speech. Even though he was told it was a bet, he couldn't help but to think something felt fishy about this kind of bet. Perhaps Nick was playing around with Kelsie, but one couldn't really tell what was going on without hearing the full story. Neither they could tell if Woody had a good sleep at all. His morning wasn't perfect at all.

"Well, I would sleep a bit longer if it wasn't of Rottweiler's lousy dog. He sometimes barks at people passing by." he explained his case.

"That sucks. And whatcha planin' to do before shooting?" asked curious Nick.

"I'm going to spend some time with my friendly neighbour."

"Cool! And what exactly are you goi-" the phone was suddenly dragged away and Markus said:

"We'll still see you there at the same time."

"Okay then."

They both hung up and Woody moved on with his day.

He believed that at least the forenoon would be great for him, because a day before Shelly invited him for a pie she baked. Such invitation couldn't be refused by polite gentleman. They both set up a small table and two chairs in front of Shelly's house. Then they just sat down and enjoyed the warm and bright sunshine. Their sweet treat had juicy blueberries inside. Nothing seemed to ruin the good mood of these two kind people. Little did they know that Roger was watching them from the window. His red-yellow eyes gazed on the deliciously looking pie. All he got from his mouth were only few greedy noms with a bit of drooling. Even he wanted one, he seemed to be the only person in the neighbourhood without a pie. The old buffoon certainly watched football instead of news. However blueberry didn't look that appetizing in his eyes. Such tiny blue fruit only reminded him the goodie-good-good neighbour who happened to be eating it. He hated him and so he did the fruit. But he had a plan.

Back outside Woody was saying jokes to Shelly.

"One day a zebra went with penguin to visit photographer. He asked them: 'Would you like a photo in colour?'"

Shelly giggled at the funny story after realizing that the two animals were black and white! The giggle suddenly stopped when she noticed Rottweiler getting out of his house. Woody was on guard prepared to protect Shelly if needed. To his surprise the grumpy neighbour only followed the sidewalk skipping the empty house next to him. He stopped at the one which happened to belong to an old lady. There was a pie cooling on window of the lady's house. Roger without any hesitate took it for himself. Woody and Shelly were the only witnesses.

"That greedy pig!" said disgusted young man.

Who dares to steal a pie from a kind old lady? Rottweiler, that's a correct answer. They desperately watched the thief returning back inside.

"Poor Mrs. Edel, she most likely forgot about her pie on the window. It surely got cold already." said worried Shelly.

"Yeah, I don't think Rottweiler will enjoy it if it's not in the tasteful warm state."

He then checked his phone and noticed it was just an hour till the crew arrives in his house. He immediately stood up saying:

"I'm sorry, but I've got to go."

Curious friend only asked:

"Really? What's the matter?"

This stopped Woody in one place.

'What should I say to her? I can't just tell her that I'm going to shoot a new episode for a show!' he thought for a while, trying to look like he is only trying to find appropriate words.

"You see… My friend from outside of the neighbourhood got a promotion… and it is very important to him, so I felt like to congratulate him in person."

"I see." she quietly answered back and watched how her kind neighbour went into his house.

Once inside, the host of the show got out his map from the drawers and looked at it while sitting on chair.

"Let's see… Rottweiler is going to have his own Pie Day as I clearly saw earlier. Surely I could ruin his pie by adding different ingredient."

He also noticed his newest note - the picture in the hall.

"Oh yeah, there's also that terrifying picture of Rottweiler's mother. Maybe I could make it less scary."

Just when he said it, he heard a small racket and Rottweiler's grumpy yelling from his house. Typical sound to hear in this neighbourhood. Woody got curious and went to check every window where cameras were hidden while shooting. For the bathroom camera he noticed Roger picking up different plastic bottles from the ground that most likely fell when he opened a cabinet. While putting them back in, he only left two bottles on the washbasin. His observation was interrupted by knocking on the door from the obvious Joe's crew.

He let the crew inside so they could prepare for the shooting. While that was going on he put his own black marker pen into his pocket as well as the superglue he took from Rottweiler's house. He was stopped by Markus who wasn't holding any camera at the moment.

"Hey there, you could try to do more extreme pranks on that couch potato."

"More extreme? Like… nastier pranks?" Woody wasn't very sure what he meant at first.

"Yeah. He deserves all that junk you got from him back. Honestly, he is worse than my tutor." the young man didn't quite know who Markus talked about, but he did agree on Rottweiler getting all the pain he cost back.

"He sure does deserve it. Not to mention he also hit an innocent mailman few times before." he said to the cameraman.

Joe ordered everyone to get on their positions and mentioned one more thing:

"Make sure none of you will shake the camera while laughing... like Nick in the last episode."

Luckily Nick had a break from holding camera. Either way, the rest of the crew laughed a little at the awkwardly smiling redhead. At last, Joe looked at the host of the show.

"Well, Woody. Show me what you have got."

"You got it, Joe." Woody winked at the director, checked if anyone was outside and when he made sure the area was clear, he left his house.


	8. The apple pie

Woody entered the hideous house of his enemy as cautiously and stealthily as possible. After his cowboyish dance gesture to the audience, he first heard footsteps from the kitchen so he looked through the keyhole to see what Roger was up to. The old loaf was finished eating a slice of pie with some whip cream on it. After licking his fingers, he took another slice to heat it up in the microwave. He was mostly going to repeat until he gets fatter than he already was.

The prankster moved on to the bathroom and looked around. He found some hair restorer from the medicine cabinet.

'So that's how Rottweiler got his eyebrow back!' he thought.

There was also a can of shaving cream in there. There were also the two bottles on the washbasin from earlier, which turned out to be a deodorant and an aftershave. It didn't took too long for Woody to figure out what to do with them. He first opened the bottle of aftershave and poured the superglue into it, he did it carefully so nothing gets on his hands.

'Now Rottweiler will experience the infamous scene from the movie "Home Alone"!' he thought while snickering quietly.

Then he did the same with the hair restorer on the deodorant. It's now the first deodorant that not only fights stench but baldness too!

Woody remembered his own plan about ruining the pie. That thought followed by how the fatso was putting large amounts of whipped cream a little earlier. Which is why the can of shaving cream would be useful to him so he took it. After all, both the shaving and whipped cream look eerily similar to each other. He exited the bathroom and went down the hallway. On the wall was hanging the picture of Roger's mother. The prankster pulled out the black marker he brought from his pocket then scribbled a big grinning face. Now the picture definitely looked way less terrifying.

'I could be more creative. Oh well, I don't have time for it now.' he thought to himself.

And he was right, he immediately heard steps coming from the kitchen. Quickly, he went to the living room to avoid his grumpy neighbour. In there he decided to watch the fat man's reaction through the keyhole. Roger walked through the hall, still dreaming about "his" pie with eyes closed. But of course, that would have to wait because he needed to shave himself. He then stopped in the middle of the hall only to look at the plant standing near the wardrobe. He came to it and took a deep smell.

"My lovely Susie, you are so beautiful today."

This only confused Woody on a new level. How could he not notice his lovely mother mocked by black scrawl? Is he that blind? And did he really name his only nice plant Susie? There was no time to find the answer for these questions, Woody thought that the old neighbour will notice his little artwork sooner or later. While he was stuck in his mind, Roger continued with talking to a mute friend of his.

"I'll also smell with beauty and aroma like you. Just wait here and you'll see."

Woody only rolled his eyes.

'Yeah, good luck with the fight against your pungent body odour!'

He couldn't stand the nonsensical talk anymore, so he moved on to the kitchen. Roger happily walked to the bathroom. Then he began shaving his barely-existent beard. After he was finished, he slapped on some aftershave... or so he thought it was, because his hands got glued to his wrinkled cheeks. Roger tried to get them unstuck by pulling his hands always. But instead, he ended up looking incredibly ridiculous, especially with his cheeks being overly stretched and with an expression that was a mix between frightened and surprised.

When he finally did it, but because he unstuck himself too suddenly and violently, he shouted from pain. The old idiot then out of rage slams his hands on the sink while completely forgetting that they still had some superglue on them. So obviously he got himself in another sticky situation. Because of that, the idiot screamed thunderously loud and continuously. The scream reached every room in the house.

'Go ahead and continue to scream, it's a music to everyone's ears!' Woody thought as he was switching the can of whipped cream with the one with shaving cream 'But no worries, neighbour... you'll get a slice of pie with shaving cream! Because what's good for the skin must be good for the stomach as well.'

Afterwards, Woody looked in the fridge hoping to at least find an egg for ruining the microwave again.

"We're out of eggs, what else could go in there?" he asked himself out loud knowing that his neighbour won't hear him.  
At that moment, he noticed there was an aluminum foil dispenser and that gave him a plan. He grabbed some aluminum foil and put it in the microwave.

'The microwave looks set for some indoor lighting.' he thought.

Meanwhile, Roger had just put some "deodorant" on both of his armpits. To his surprise a large amount of hair grew out of them only in mere seconds. His eyes popped out of shock that they almost fell off his head. He then furiously yelled different kinds of swears he knew!  
After he let out most of his wrath to the point of near exhaustion, he had to shave his armpits to have them like before. Then the old glutton considered getting some pie again to fully calm his nerves. Eventually in the hall he noticed the scribbled picture of his mother. It took him only a second to be more than incredibly furious. Even exhaustion couldn't fully stop him to unleash his full wrath.

"Who or what dared to mock my dear momma?!" the old glutton yelled, while flailing his arms around like a lunatic... not that he already wasn't one.

So enraged Roger ran to the chest of drawers to search for a cloth. Then after he found one, he went to wipe off the marker ink from the picture. It certainly looked better when it was scribbled...

Roger continued walking to the kitchen, fully unaware of what really awaited him there. Once he was there, he took a slice of pie and put it in the microwave. At the same time, Woody was in the living room watching through a keyhole. The prankster was glad that his mean neighbour was not only stupid and partially blind... but also partially deaf. Because the foil would obviously make some sort of sound, yet the idiot couldn't notice it. The old loaf turned the microwave on. After mere seconds, the foil first let out some bright sparks. But he didn't notice them either, because he was too busy waiting for the treat. Eventually, the kitchen appliance broke - it was useless now.

Out of overflowing anger, he lifted it up and threw it on the floor while Woody was still watching the scene and trying his best not to burst into laughter. His gluttonous neighbour had forgotten that the pie was still in the broken kitchen appliance. When he remembered that, he got really frustrated and tried to get it out. The neighbour managed to do that, but wasn't sure what to do with the broken thing. For now, he simply wanted to enjoy the treat. And to him, it was better with some cream. However, it surely wasn't whipped cream like he expected. Because after Roger ate the whole slice in one nom, he coughed forcibly out of disgust and fell on the floor. That's what he gets for being so greedy!

After the well done job of Woody, he ended the episode with his gesture to the audience. Then he stealthily walked to the main door. When he left the house, he immediately noticed Shelly outside just looking at birds on a tree near her house. Quickly, he jumped over the hedge on his yard to avoid suspicion. It didn't take long for Shelly finally noticing her friend.

"Hello, Woody!" she smiled at him.

"Hello..." he replied trying to sound normal after small acrobatics and smiling back.

"Umm... How is your friend doing?" she asked sheepishly.

"Friend?" Woody was confused at first, that was until he realized he told her a lie before shooting "Oh yeah! He... he is doing great! He had other things to do so I left him earlier than planned."

"I see. I heard Mr. Rottweiler yelling angrily again. I couldn't understand what exactly he was yelling."

Woody felt like telling her all the funny stuff he did to his neighbour, but he knew that would sound too suspicious. Both faces turned to Roger's front door where he himself kicked his own microwave out of the house. Shelly got confused.

"He broke his own microwave?" she whispered quietly to her friend.

"Heheh, I witnessed that when I got home." started Woody also whispering.

Before the next sentence, he checked if the fat neighbour wasn't looking at them.

"Get this: he wanted to heat up his pie while it was still in an aluminium foil."

"What a misfortune." giggled Shelly while covering her cheerful smile.

"I would say silliness." corrected her Woody.

Roger then went inside again.

"Could you help me with something, please?" asked Shelly in normal volume again.

"Sure, anything for you."

"I was sorting my brushes for painting... and then I saw a wasp..." she slightly shivered from fear only from the mere mention of the small evil insect.

"It's still in your house?"

"Not really... I dropped one of my brushes when I saw it. Now I can't find it..."

"I can help you with that." he accepted and followed Shelly into her house.

He already knew the crew was already packing and they would figure out that he didn't plan to go home. Before he went inside, he looked back one more time only to notice Roger spying on them from his window. He recognized his jealous expression from the day when he celebrated his birthday and happened to come across the two. Roger quickly hid himself once he realized he got spotted. Woody only smiled and went to help Shelly. In his thoughts he imagined himself as a hero fighting against the old evil monster.

'Typical Rottweiler. Making a lot of noise, messing up yards and yelling at people, only to become grumpy and unlikeable. But I showed him what bullying means. Even the audience will see what a cruel and silly man Rottweiler really is. And he knows nothing. I serve justice in the neighbourhood by giving that rotten bald-head what he deserves.' 


	9. Children's football

In the quiet peaceful blank place, our hero Woody was doing his usual job - setting pranks on his neighbour. He was using shoe polish on screen of a TV to make it all black so nobody could see a thing when turned on. Now he wasn't just ordinary Woody. He had crystal-clear wings on his back and even a shinier circle above his head. It was his duty to make the neighbour suffer from all the things he had done to others. His work went smoothly, thanks to the shiny light he knew exactly which spots on the TV screen needed to be covered. However, a grumpy voice came from behind.

"Playing tricks on me again, huh?"

It was him, the angry neighbour! His sharp glowing horns and terrifying tail moving back and forth like a levitating whip gave a pretty scary image. But Woody didn't mind. He only looked at his enemy with cheerful smile and confident eyes saying:

"You're too slow to figure it out, neighbour."

"Get over here!" angrily yelled the old oaf, but after few steps he ended up on the ground.

Silly him, a bar of soap was placed in front of him! The angelic prankster's expression only shone brighter in smile and he happily said:

"What did I tell you? I've got to go. The world is calling me." proclaimed Woody and spread out his shiny crystal-clear wings.

He flew away, leaving the neighbour angrily watching from the ground. Flying over the houses of Blue Highway, he finally found his lovely home. The bedroom window was opened letting him go inside. The shiny wonder found his ordinary self still sleeping in the bed lying on his belly.

"What?! I'm still sleeping? I should get up, it's already morning!"

In the effort of waking himself up he jumped on his bed and started bouncing on it.

"Wake up, woody head!"

Ordinary Woody was literally like a piece of wood. No matter how bouncy his bed was, he only felt like on a peaceful rocking bed sailing on Pacific Ocean. His winged-self didn't give up just yet, so he pinched his ear.

"Hello! You've got work to do! Everybody's waiting for you!"

The only feedback he got was satisfying humming and snuggling his own pillow. It was clear that normal Woody will not open his eyes.

"So you refuse to wake up?"

Disappointed angel tried to come up with a plan, but then he heard children laugh coming from outside. From the window he clearly saw that those were indeed children playing football. The light above his head shone even brighter with an idea. He flew to the ball that was standing still.

"I'm sorry, Woody, but you have to wake up!"

With the proper aiming he kicked the ball that landed just right on the unsuspecting young man. After a harmless hit on the back, Woody finally woke up and started looking around himself full of confusion and shock. It turned out that he was only dreaming. He was still just an ordinary man in bed... but the ball was real. It seemed like it rolled further away from the bed after getting inside. The children outside were asking for the ball. Woody of course took it and came to the window, but before actually dropping it, he told them:

"Hey, kids! Careful where you kick the ball! You could break something in my house!"

One of the children with blue eyes and black hair dressed in green T-shirt and grey shorts replied:

"We're sorry, mister. We were just playing. Could you please return us the ball?"

Woody of course threw the ball back to them since they kindly asked. The children rejoiced and continued with their game. The weather outside was nice as it could be seen from the window. After short observation the young man finally decided to dress up and have breakfast.

From a house next to Shelly's a tall black-haired woman wearing red dress went outside. She stopped near the children playing outside and called one of them:

"Timmy, sweetheart! I'll go shopping. Be good while I'm away."

The boy in green T-shirt and grey shorts happened to be her son. He happily replied:

"Okay, mom!"

While leaving the woman waved to her little boy. She didn't notice Woody who headed to Shelly's house and neither he did her. It was an unpleasant surprise for the young man when the woman finally turned and unwillingly hit him with her strong arm. He ended up falling on the ground. Finally he noticed who it actually was.

'Th-that's Olga Akim! What should I do?' he panicked in mind once he realized it was the neighbour he never liked to look at.

Even with full clothing nothing could hide her giant breasts completely. Olga only offered a hand.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't notice you. Do you need help?"

Her chest got more tempting once she leaned forward slightly. Woody's face was covered with red as he tried to look away from the still kind woman.

"N-n-no! Thank you." he replied while thinking to himself: 'Don't look at her, don't look at her…'

He quickly got up and continued in his way. It was such a relief to be away from her. Even she went her own way to do some shopping. Just when he crossed the road, he noticed his sweet friend Shelly exiting her house holding a small bag.

"Good morning Shelly." he greeted her with typical cheerful smile.

Shelly got surprised seeing Woody right in front of her just few feet away. She stopped in the door and after a while she greeted back:

"G-good morning."

Woody saw that Shelly was still standing on one place with confused face, so he said:

"You surely didn't expect me, am I right?"

She only nodded and slightly smiled at him. She didn't know what to say, so she timidly looked around herself. The young man finally noticed her lemon yellow bag with light blue spots. He asked:

"Are you going somewhere?"

"I'm leaving for few days." replied Shelly with slightly more confidence.

This answer made curious Woody question further:

"And where are you heading?"

"To my parents."

Shelly had not much more to say... or did she? Her eyes were looking at her good friend desperately, as if she had some request for him. He did see it on her, so he didn't hesitate:

"Is there anything I can do for you?"

She sheepishly answered:

"Could you… look after my flowers while I'm away?"

"Even those inside? Sure, that's no problem."

"Thank you."

Shelly locked her house and handed her keys over to Woody. He wanted to take them, yet some mysterious will made him hold her soft hand instead. Both of them looked at each other's eyes. They seemed calm at first, but as soon as Shelly's cheeks caught red colour, Woody's cheeks were painted the same colour as well. The warmth of the hands' touch travelled into their inner-selves. Why this sudden moment? They were just friends, weren't they? They indeed knew that their days were much brighter with one another.

In a neighbourhood ruled by one disrespectful dog-like man, it seemed like a miracle that the two almost the same sized met. But now... it felt kind of strange... They quitted with the eye contact... yet didn't quite leave each other's hand. They were still connected with keys stuck in their hug. This could go on forever, if it wasn't of a car stopping in front of Shelly's house and a woman in there called her name. In that moment Shelly finally left the keys to Woody and ran to the car.

"Oh-! Bye, Shelly!" he quickly said.

Once she got inside the car, she looked at him one more time with a smile on her face. It seemed that she wanted to stay with him for a bit longer. She drove off with the woman and Woody watched behind. He still wasn't sure about his act.

'Why did I hold her hand? I didn't want to do that! I wanted to take her keys!' his face showed that he was angry at himself 'I looked like an idiot in front of her...'

At the same time Roger was outside polishing his motorcycle lawn-mower. He didn't notice his neighbours holding hands as he was too busy with polishing. He did see Shelly leaving by the car and irritated Woody just standing there. His tongue was itchy with viciousness and he started verbally bullying his next-door neighbour.

"Hey there, Trickster! What's the matter? Did your lovely girl finally leave the neighbourhood? Oh, how sad!" he felt extremely happy with every word he spoke.

He believed his words were like sharp knives to Trickster himself. Woody of course didn't take his claiming as truth that easily.

'No she didn't, you fat greedy glutton! She just wants to have a break from your lousy behaviour! You are a loner yourself! All you have got is Susie the motionless flower!' Woody wanted to say this out loud, but he knew he would look suspicious.

He stayed quiet for few seconds trying to think of different response. Meanwhile Roger continued with his sarcasm:

"Now you've got no one who could do your chores! No one for planting flowers or baking cake! Boohoo!"

The children that were still playing outside stopped for a while to witness this mean talk. Woody finally had planned his answer. With much calmer expression he said:

"Mind your own business, Rottweiler. Your lawn-mower still needs some polish from your spitting."

Roger did find it insulting, but he got something "better" for his hateful neighbour.

"Still, your little sweet shy girl will find someone better outside of neighbourhood."

'Well, you sure do enjoy hurting others who've done nothing wrong. However, such mean grumpy old guy is really stupid to realize that every crime shall be punished by only one hero! That hero being me!' monologued to himself Woody after Roger went back inside with malicious smile.

Some time passed by and our young prankster was at home thinking over the map he drew. New notes such as the lovely plant in the hall gave him an idea for ruining it with something. Perhaps with something stinky like Rottweiler's socks. He also planned to bring his black marker pen with just in case. It didn't take long for Joe's crew to arrive at Woody's house. They came and prepared cameras just like before. Woody was still concerned about the number of cameras they had. He asked Joe:

"How are we doing with the budget if I may ask?"

"Fair enough for a small crew like us. We might soon get a new camera if we make such great episodes like last ones."

"I believe it will only get better and better." grinned the prankster.

His director winked for the agreement:

"I bet it will."

Joe then went to check if the cameras are set as he wished. Meanwhile Woody felt like to ask other member some question to get to know them better. He approached the blonde guy cleaning his glasses.

"Hello, Michael." he greeted him.

"Well, hello there, Woody." said Michael, awkwardly smiling "How can I help you?"

"I'm curious about something. Is it hard to shoot with glasses?" he asked him.

"Umm... kind of? I've already found a way of shooting without having glasses as an obstacle. I'm quite used to it." the blond man explained as he adjusted his glasses.

"Oh, I understand."

Their conversation was cancelled by Joe asking if everybody is ready. Everyone replied 'yes' at the same time. Woody was the last who answered like that. Before leaving Joe had this to say:

"Well then, Woody. After rewatching the previous episodes I came to conclusion that you could set approximately six pranks for creating a long enough episode. Of course if possible. The situation at the old smell-fart's house can change quickly."

Woody replied:

"Don't worry, Joe. I've got this."

With this said he was prepared to visit his Neighbour from Hell once again...


	10. The old spoilsport

Stealthily, Woody set foot into the hideous building of his evil neighbour. Just when he closed the door behind him, only then he noticed he left his mobile phone in his pocket. He made sure it was on quiet mode so nobody would get him into trouble while trying to call. He saw the flower from last time and a brown sports bag with a bowling ball in it. What could a bowling ball be useful for? Woody overheard some footsteps from the living room, so he walked there and peeked through the keyhole - his neighbour was just leaving some other room and he was holding what appeared to be music sheets. The prankster was curious about the room he was in, but he couldn't go there because no camera was set for that room. His neighbour put the music sheet on the piano and started playing it, but it sounded really broken. Of course, the piano itself wasn't broken, the old oaf was just terrible at it. That made whatever melody he was playing sound so bad, even a turkey would do way better at it.

'Stupid neighbour symphony...' the prankster thought to himself as he rolled his eyes.

The black marker pen and the phone in his pocket would be useful later. He moved on to explore the other rooms as he remembered from his made map of the house. Woody searched through the bathroom first, but there wasn't anything mischief-worthy. So he walked into the kitchen. After entering it, the first thing he did was checking the fridge - he found some cheese so stinky it smelled like garbage dump. At this moment, a ball went flying through the open window from the same children from outside. They were asking for the ball. However, because of the loud symphony, Roger didn't seem to hear them. Woody couldn't return it to them... for one of the obvious reasons is that he would raise suspicion. Nevertheless, he did have another plan with it which is why he picked it up and went to the hallway. He had in plan to switch it with the bowling ball which looked almost exactly like a real football.

Once in the hall where the bowling ball was kept in the bag, Woody had to put the football somewhere so it wouldn't get in his way while doing pranks, so he hid it in that bag. Before leaving he noticed a sticky note above the old-fashioned telephone which he did not notice earlier. Out of curiosity, he decided to look at it - there was Roger's phone number written on it.

'Perhaps my neighbour had written this note so he won't forget it so easily...' Woody assumed in his mind.

He typed the number on his own mobile phone just in case it would come in handy. Who knows? Anything can become useful later...

Now one challenging thing to do for him was to carry the bowling ball all the way to the kitchen. After the jokester was done with that, he had to take some deep breath before he could continue on. Suddenly he heard angry voice coming from living room:

"Who the Hell yells at me?"

Woody knew Roger was about to go to kitchen, so he tried to think of a quick way of not getting caught. With haste, he took out his phone and dialed the number which he had saved. Luckily, it worked since it made the old oaf turn around and walk to the other door. What a close call... Woody felt so relieved from that. Thanks to his fast sense he of course didn't get into trouble, so he placed the bowling ball near the kitchen window. He then set foot into the living room.

'From what I saw earlier, Baldy McBald was playing the piano. Maybe I can make the composition... much more interesting.' he thought as he began scribbling on the music sheet.

Woody had to make sure that he messes up all of the pages just in case. They weren't many anyway. Meanwhile, Roger picked up the ringing phone.

"Yeah?" he asked with annoyed expression on his face. But there was no reply and this peeved the grump more.

"What?! What the HELL do want from me?!" the lack of answer threw him from being irritated to angry.

With furious matter he put the earphone back on its place. After the grump settled down a little, he went to the kitchen as intended previously. When he stepped into the room, the first thing he saw was supposedly a football to him. The idiotic pink-slipper-wearing-barrel couldn't even recognize his own bowling ball for crying out loud!

Either way, the children outside were still asking for their football. The barrel thought that if he was going to return it, then he may as well kick it so he can pretend to be a sportsman for once. That was a bad choice of him, because he was now experiencing a great deal of pain. Roger was screaming and jumping around on one foot while holding it. The ridiculousness of his actions made him look like a crazed flamingo. It didn't take long for him to lose his balance and clumsily fall down on the floor.

At the same time, Woody was finished preparing the "improved" music sheet for his neighbour simply named "Bleeding eardrums". He went to the hallway and decided to have another go with the picture of Rottweiler's mother. He took out his black marker pen from his pocket and started drawing on it. He made it less scary, this time by quickly drawing goofy eyes, long beard and a moustache.

"Much better. The beard looks quite becoming." he said to himself somewhat quietly so his neighbour wouldn't hear him.

But of course there was also the only nice plant here which apparently was named "Susie". Woody remembered his own plan to ruin it with something smelly, and he was aware that he still had that stinky cheese from earlier. He began smearing the flower with the cheese until it was nearly covered. Now the flower's new "aroma" fit everything else in the house. Yet as a result of his own trick, the jokester was also partially covered with it. Yuck...

'I should disinfect myself after I get home...' he thought disgustedly 'In any case, I think there's another thing I can do.'

The jokester went to the bathroom to recheck if there was anything worth of any prank. There he grabbed the whole roll of toilet paper, unrolled it then threw it into the toilet. Unlike the last time he did a trick like this, there wasn't that much paper, yet it was still enough to block up the toilet. Then he left the room and went to his safe spot - the wardrobe. The only thing left was to be sure that the old oaf fell into the rest of the tricks. Meantime, Roger just hardly stood up to his feet from the little bowling ball incident. He lifted up the ball and carried it to the window. Football or not, he was still going to give it back to the kids. Exactly after he angrily dropped it, most of them were heard screaming from fear. The grump shouted at them with the words:

"That's what you get for kicking your freaking ball into my house, you stupid kids!"

The confused children didn't know what to say or do in this extraordinary situation. Where did their real ball go? Roger left those miserable little scamps alone and irritably stomped out of the room.

He sat behind the piano to continue with his playing. Without even rechecking the current page he followed one note after another in such bizarre combination creating a completely nonsensical music. Even Ludwig Van Beethoven after losing hearing sense would claim this "a catastrophic symphony". But every tragic symphony ends with a suffering point... in case of Roger the fallboard closed the whole keyboard with his fingers still on them. The whole composition was concluded with the last note of Roger's painful scream.

After pulling out his fingers and blowing on them, the old man was more puffed than before. He decided to leave the piano as it failed to please his mind. Perhaps the soothing smell of his favourite flower Susie would calm him down. Just when he thought of doing so, in the hall he noticed the picture of his lovely mother mocked once again, this time even worse!

"My momma! Why is everything bad happening in my house?!" he quickly got a cloth from the chest of drawers to remove whoever was responsible for a really well-made fun caricature.

"Once I catch that one thing causing all this mess, I will make sure it will suffer!"

Woody heard everything from the wardrobe. He had doubts of his neighbour ever finding him, heck, he avoided getting caught in the kitchen earlier! While smiling he thought to himself:

'Try find that "thing" first!'

When the grump went up to the flower to take a smell, he felt really sick to the point of wanting to vomit. He ran to the bathroom as fast as he could. He managed to get to the toilet so he threw up in it. It was a relief for him... When he attempted to flush it though, he threw a temper tantrum because it wouldn't and it only made a mess. He began crying over all the "mysterious" incidents that keep happening to him today. What an overgrown baby!

Yet another successful episode of "Neighbours from Hell", and Woody ended it with his iconic gesture to the viewers. But before actually leaving he got the football which belonged to the kids outside from the sports-bag. He checked if they are still in front of Rottweiler's house. To his satisfaction they were further away not looking at the dirty mansion. He went outside and quickly jumped over the hedge to his part of home.

"Hey there, kids! Does this belong to you?" Woody asked, pretending he just found it.

Little Timmy, the boy in green T-shirt, noticed him and excited he replied:

"Yes, it does!"

With other boys he ran to the young man to receive the ball. He of course thanked him along with others and continued to play football in front of the Akim house.

'Finally everything is as it should. Rottweiler got a taste of sweet revenge and the kids are happy again.'

With that in mind Woody then headed to his lovely home. Once inside, Joe greeted him with clapping and:

"Well done, Woody, well done."

The prankster's proud soul was then interrupted by a complaint.

"However, this episode wasn't really perfect. You should be careful with repeating the tricks. We don't need to see reused humour."

"I only wanted to improve my trick from the last episode." said Woody fully self-confident.

The director stayed quiet only for a while, perhaps thinking about this reply.

"Then be careful with this choice, okay?"

After that his smile returned and brought a question:

"So, what are you going to do now?"

"Well... nothing special." replied Woody with not so happy tone.

He had nothing planned for today since his friend Shelly was obviously away.

"I've got a good suggestion for you, if you want."

This made young man pretty curious and he was prepared to hear the offer.

"You can visit my office. We could have a talk there about us."

"That sounds interesting. When could I go there?"

"How about now?"

Woody without much thinking agreed to this deal and after he washed himself from the cheese smell and everything was packed, he followed the crew from his house to their van. It was parked far away from his household and it indeed looked very vague without any logo on it.

"Do you get suspected for looking so... dangerous?" curiously asked Woody.

"Hahah, I know what you mean" laughed Joe. "Once we were stopped by nearby police when we parked here. Of course we always have business cards so no such misunderstanding turns into a big problem."

Michael and Kelsie got into front seats with her as the driver while the rest got into back. The van then left the boundaries of Blue Highway following the long straight road. It was Woody's great trip into a new place for him where he would discover only more about his crew... 


	11. At Joe's office

After about half hour they got into Vienna. Through the front window Woody could see wide roads, large buildings, green parks with glorious statues. It wasn't that often for him to see a large city, that was why he looked so amazed by it.

"Welcome to Vienna." said Joe to Woody with a smile.

The van stopped few times in large traffics and while waiting near traffic lights. Finally they arrived at the building where JoWood Studio had their office. Once Kelsie parked the van, Michael and the twins left the crew presumably done with their work. The rest took the equipment and headed into the building. Already at their workplace after storing the equipment, Kelsie with Nick started some other work with laptop at a table. Markus sat next to a window to have a smoke. The prankster didn't have time to look closely at the whole room as Joe told him:

"Come with me, Woody. My office is this way." Woody then followed him.

The office was quite spacious and painted white, and it had several floor-to-ceiling windows. The grey desk had three drawers on the right hand side. There was one swivel chair behind the desk and one regular in front of it. Near the desk, there was a water cooler and also several shelves with coffee and some books.

"Cool office you've got, Joe." he commented with a smile while looking around.

"Take a seat, buddy. No one's gonna bother us." said Joe while taking of his cap and vest.

Woody was looking closely at the desk, but he wasn't planning to sit there at all.

"Just have a seat."

"Here? This is your desk." Woody was confused.

"I'm not a director now." Joe seemed to be okay with it.

Still sort of confused at his invitation, he sat down behind the desk anyway.

"Coffee?" Joe offered.

"I'm not very fond of it. Do you have anything else?"

"That's strange. You're the first person I've seen who doesn't drink coffee!"

There wasn't anything else, except still water. So he went to pour some from the water cooler which was only few feet away from them. Then he brought it to the desk and sat on the regular chair.

"The table is too big for me, but it feels comfortable. Could I ever be a director?"

Joe laughed at this question then explained:

"Well, Woody, a director needs to have a lot of knowledge. I'm talking about hundreds of seen movies, third of them from the finest directors and good speech skills. You are good enough for a host."

"Then I guess you have all that knowledge you just mentioned." he concluded.

"Indeed. It's years of practice, so even learning the art of directing isn't that simple."

Woody began exploring the first shelve of the desk. After a short time, he found some old photos and what appeared to be scripts.

"What are these?" he asked.

"My old projects. Feel free to check them." his friend answered.

With that said he looked at one photo after another, each different that others. Most of them seemed to be from action movies, but one could not tell their specific story. Nor the people in them looked familiar to Woody. That was until he came across one photo where it looked like a white lady sitting on a royal chair and a knight with a plate where he reveals a severed head that still had opened eyes. That head looked like Joe himself!

"Hey, that's your face!" Woody exclaimed.

Joe quickly realized what he was looking at. He didn't quite think about that one certain project would get found.

"You're getting served to that white lady. Tonight's speciality - decapitated Joe!"

"Heh, you know nothing about that scene. Here I was invited for the role of headless horseman. It's a horror movie with some flaws. This photo is an iconic scene for the fans where I talk to the white lady as a head." he told him about it.

"Can you tell me the name of this movie?" Woody asked.

However, he didn't want to tell him anything more about the movie, not even the name.

"I'll tell you when I feel like to." Joe looked kind of offended, but didn't unleash any anger whatsoever.

Woody then smiled and started speaking:

"I know what could improve this horror flick - Mr. Rottweiler as the main villain monster."

"Hahaha! That would indeed set the scariness level on maximum! Nowadays horror movies rely on pointless jumpscares and focus less on the villains themselves. But that fat pig wouldn't even need an introduction." Joe stated.

"The movie should then be renamed to… The Return of the Fat Vampire Lord Baldhead - Monster sucking out patience of all humanity." he suggested.

"I see a new talent is evolving here - story writer."

"Who knows? Maybe you'll direct my movies."

They both had a great laugh at that. Nothing was meant so seriously, and everything was taken as a joke. After calming down, Woody had another thing he was curious about:

"May I ask a question? How did you start as a studio?"

"Long story short: the projects you just saw didn't mean that much to me. I was only invited as either a director or another scriptwriter. For a long time I wished to create my own studio where I would decide what to do. In some of the few projects I worked on, I came across Kelsie who also happened to be invited. Once I got to know her better, I told her about my goal. She admitted that she would join me if that really happened. Since then she helped me to get some people who could join us like her friends Michael and Nick. I came across Markus and then Thomas with Boris. Even when we had people, we still were missing other specialities, mainly someone producing ideas. Despite that, I decided to form a studio. I was warned though that we would have had to get cancelled after two weeks if we hadn't produced anything by that time. So we put advertisements into newspapers to find anyone with any talent, mainly idea producers. You can just imagine how much frustration it was for me as well as other members. The rest is up to you to make out."

"Oh yeah, about Markus... You told me that he had some things going on before joining."

"I have doubts you experienced something like this, otherwise you would end up like him. Basically he lived with an alcoholic father and had an abusive teacher. That was hard for him to handle and so he ended up smoking."

'Maybe that explains why he suggested me those "extreme" pranks days ago.' Woody assumed this in his mind.

"We then managed to teach him how to control himself and get along with others." assured Joe.

There was about a moment pause before he asked:

"And how come your humour is that good?"

Woody thought about this for a while before he answered:

"I don't know. I must have been born with that… or maybe because I liked comedies as a youngster. As a kid I was obsessed over Tom and Jerry."

"Golden classic."

"My father also likes Three Stooges. He sometimes showed me some parts from it during my childhood." he added.

"So your father is also a comedy lover?" Joe questioned.

"Yes. He actually worked as a scriptwriter for comedy movies." Woody replied.

This response got Joe a bit surprised, but he was still interested to know more so he inquired further:

"And what do you think his reaction would be if he found out that you're the host of a comedy show?"

This time for this matter, he thought longer on what to say about it before he responded with these words:

"...Perhaps he would be shocked. But not as shocked as my mother. She's a much more caring and protective parent."

"I see... You mentioned some friend one day. Is that your only friend in the neighbourhood?"

"Shelly?"

There was a short pause. Woody now suddenly remembered the moment with him holding her hand... and that one strange feeling. It made him sigh a little and almost ended up daydreaming, but he forced himself to wake up from that. Afterwards he said:

"She's my friend, yes. There are other decent neighbours, but nobody is as kind as her."

"Does she enjoy our show?"

"Eeeh… She doesn't know about it." he was somewhat hesitant with his response.

And Joe seemed confused by it, which made him ask:

"How come she doesn't? You haven't had time to tell her yet?"

The prankster felt awkward if he were to tell him the whole reason.

"It's not that... She is not a type of person who would enjoy it." which is why he told him only part of it.

"If you say so. It really is a shame, she would be your loyal fan maybe." Joe was sort of disappointed to hear that.

Then Woody checked the time - it was getting late for him, so he decided that he should leave.

"I would like to go home now."

Joe complied to that, but then he stopped him in front of the office door.

"Before I forget…" he handed him a large amount of money to the prankster "You should hide it in front of camera crew. Your salary is obviously way higher than theirs."

Woody's eyes widened from amazement, he most likely didn't expected to get so much. Either way, he hid it in his pocket.

"Well, I'll go then."

"As you please. I think Markus or Nick are still here. One of them could take you home."

Woody pulled out his mobile phone and told him:

"That's okay. I'll call a taxi for myself."

But Joe stopped him from calling by saying:

"That's a waste of money. Don't be afraid to accept a free ride."

They finally left the office when they could see Kelsie and Nick still talking about something over her laptop. They immediately stopped with that once they noticed their director.

"Does any of you have time to give Woody a lift?" asked Joe.

"We are still working on the episode." explained Kelsie.

Markus then offered himself for this duty. Joe was satisfied and said "bye" to Woody. Following Markus he got to a car that was nowhere near the main van. When they took the front seats, Markus suggested this:

"Be prepared for a wild ride. The city can be crazy at this time."

"What?!" Woody got shocked.

"I'm not going to drive fast or anything, but once in a while you'll meet some madman on the street going way faster than you would expect." explained Markus.

'I should have taken the back seat.' Woody thought to himself while feeling uncomfortable.

The traffic was much less busy than at afternoon, but they did see some drivers unable to control their speed and one of them almost crashing into them. That made the smoker spit out few swears and young prankster even more uncomfortable. Not because of the filthy language, but because of the possibility of a real car crash. Luckily, they did make it through and safely arrived at the front of Woody's house.

"Thanks for the ride." said Woody with smile.

"No problem." answered Markus trying to smile back but losing it over neutral expression.

He then drove off and Woody's day could have ended with relaxation on his couch and then going to bed... hoping that Roger Rottweiler wouldn't cause any trouble. Even if he did, the great prankster would surely give him some of his tricks hidden up his sleeves solely for two purposed: punish the neighbour and show everyone else what a real goof he is.

* * *

 **Author's note: Special little thanks to Igor Radaev for writing a really funny comment on a picture, which gave us the idea for inserting it on this chapter. It was just so funny that we just couldn't miss that opportunity!**


	12. Paintings

Another typical morning in Blue Highway... or almost typical. For our great prankster it was kind of bland like the other mornings before. That was because his friend Shelly had gone to her family and still hadn't returned. Woody was sitting outside observing neighbours passing by and little Timmy Akim drawing on sidewalk with colourful chalks.

'If only I had someone to talk to...' sighed the young man.

He didn't feel like to find a partner for talking in the neighbourhood. Shelly was like the perfect one to start a conversation with. Or maybe... there was something else behind it... His quiet moment was ruined when an empty can hit his head. It was painful nonetheless. After quick recovery he looked at the source of this throw - his neighbour's house. He noticed Roger Rottweiler drinking beer on the balcony.

'Of course, I should have known that!' out of frustration he threw the can where he thought it belonged to - Roger's yard.

He then continued relaxing on his chair. The angry mood couldn't just go away that easily. After a while Roger himself got outside with his typical mad expression.

"I saw you throwing can on my yard!" he yelled at Woody, only to get the answer:

"It's not my beer. I don't drink any."

This made Roger surprised at first... it didn't last long. He went through the hedge dividing the houses slowly heading to the young man. Woody didn't know what was going on. Still sitting on his chair, his serious expression changed rather quickly once the big neighbour passed through the hedge like it was just a fog. He stopped in front him and with evil glare he asked:

"Do you want to say that again?"

Woody stayed quiet. He didn't know what to do. He was only looking at him with unsure expression. Roger finally decided to do the unthinkable - giving him a proper lesson right there. With his fight stance he grabbed the little neighbour's arm! Woody now knew that he was in big trouble. His immediate reaction was screaming out of fear. His loud scream triggered Olga to go out of her house and yell:

"Hey! No fights here when my child is playing outside!"

Roger turned his head to her. His evil face was tuned down pretty fast. There was a strong witness outside who could stop his actions - and it happened to be a woman Rottweiler had a big crush on! Unwilling to get punished for it, he dropped Woody and left his yard. The young man was so relieved. The grab was really uncomfortable, but it was also scary. If it wasn't of Olga who could clearly hear anything outside even from behind the wall, he would most likely experience a great suffer. He didn't want to imagine what exactly would happen to him and quickly got up from the ground. He then noticed little Timmy saying something to his strong mother that he could not make out. Once he heard the mention of a can, he knew that the child was talking about the whole thing he just saw. Olga then turned to the young man and started a conversation from her yard.

"Mr. Trickster, you already know that Rottweiler has an aggressive manner, why are you provoking him?"

Provoke? How did he provoke Roger? Perhaps the other day when he told him to mind his own business when Shelly left, this time it was just clearing out that the can of beer wasn't Woody's. Or maybe it was throwing the can back on his dirty yard... which was purely out of anger. Woody had no problem looking at Olga from even few feet away, as long as she was fully clothed. This time she was wearing a T-shirt, a much better clothing than the last time.

"I've never intended to be rude at random, but when someone is making a junkyard out of my home and makes fun of my appearance, I can get angry as well."

The lady stayed quiet for a moment, presumably thinking of something wise to say. The young man thought that she was going to say something about staying polite to others even when they don't act like that back. This thought made him slightly angrier but still enough to say out loud:

"What's the point of staying polite when even the police can't look at this problem?!"

That didn't surprise Olga at all. She only replied:

"Just stay with cool head, Mr. Trickster. I know that you can stay patient for a very long time. I've already heard about some strange things going on in Rottweiler's house which drive him crazy. Maybe some nice elf finally decided to punish this good-for-nothing neighbour by messing around with his property."

After she said that, little Timmy commented on this:

"He changed our football into a bowling ball! The big man kicked into it before giving it to us."

The mother only giggled and stroked the boy's head. Maybe all this "elf thing" was said because the child was present at this moment.

"You know what they say: The good deed returns to you at the end." said Olga and finally went inside also with Timmy.

Woody was standing alone still not fully satisfied. As if he was missing something important to him. At least Olga Akim wasn't completely ignorant about his problem, she fully understood his point of view as a short person.

'Or when you can't rely on anyone, you've got to do it by yourself.' he thought to himself.

After a short time he looked at his phone to check the time. It was about time to prepare for today's episode of Neighbours from Hell. He went inside to find some tools for his pranks.

"Revenge is not how I do things, but accidents will happen." started talking to himself the great prankster. "Even when it looks like I don't know what's going to be useful, there will always be opportunities to take at Rottweiler's house. The important thing is to take them right away, just like at the beginning when I met Joe for the first time."

Woody thought of taking his trustful superglue that so far did miracles for him. He found it in his chest of drawers, but to his unpleasant surprise it was already empty. Such great superglue and it already ran out! Or perhaps the episode could go without it. Just in case Woody checked the windows to see his neighbour's activity. In the living room he spotted him looking at some book that looked like a photo-album.

"Some kind of glue would definitely do the trick there. Sadly I don't have time to go to the shop anymore." he said to himself.

While trying to think of something, he remembered he was given keys to Shelly's house. Without hesitation he headed there. After unlocking the main door, he started to look around the small comfy house. He considered to check the kitchen if there was any kind of glue. At last he found some. On the cover it said "For wood and paper".

"Well, it's good enough glue. It will be just for one trick so then Shelly wouldn't be surprised where all her glue went." with that said Woody then decided to return to his house and wait for Joe's crew.

He stopped near some paintings of flowers. They were obviously painted by Shelly, because he already knew she owns tempera colours and brushes.

"Shelly is a really talented painter." commented the young man on paintings, knowing that his friend wasn't going to hear that.

He looked at them for some time which then made him go into deep thinking...

"I can see so much care put into these paintings... I wonder how she makes those brush strokes..."

In his eyes he had that one moment from days ago when he held her hand. He never felt such softness of a hand before. It wasn't just holding it... His heart got warm when he looked at her face... the shy kind face with cheeks as red as one painting of what looked like a tulip. Woody forgot what he was going to do. He smiled while standing in one place and looking at the painting. He imagined Shelly running towards him, finally returning home. She then gave him a big hug. He hugged back while saying how much he missed her. He had other kind words on his tongue, but suddenly the lovely image disappeared, because Woody thought it was too ridiculous for it to even happen.

"Ugh! Wake up, woody head! Shelly is just my friend! I only care about her because she is kind. And she cares about me because I am gentle."

He no longer wanted to daydream of a romantic scene from nonexistent movie starring Woody Trickster and Shelly Haward. He did remember Roger's cruel words though, that she might find someone better than him outside of the neighbourhood. He of course didn't believe those words, not that he ever fought for Shelly's love.

"Rottweiler knows nothing about us. He only talks to a motionless plant." he said out loud and then tried to imitate Roger's rough voice "I can just imagine his awkward talk to a real woman: 'Uuuh... I like your fragrance.' Yeah, I bet he would get slapped after this sentence."

After that, he finally left his friend's house. He then was once again visited by Joe and his crew who came like they usually did. While typical preparation Woody decided to ask something to the last members of the crew - Thomas and Boris. The twins were showing something to themselves near living room window. The prankster slowly approached them, thinking what he could ask them without looking too awkward. He was already told that the twins were mostly speechless. The bigger question was going to be how he would understand them. He thought about his first move for a while before greeting them.

"Hi, guys." Thomas and Boris looked at him with neutral expressions. Both of them waved at him as a greeting.

"Uhm... Which one of you is better in camera skills?"

One of them smiled and pointed to other with right hand, while the second one tried to deny it with hand waving. He wasn't angry though. Then through constant pointing to himself, his brother and nearby camera he tried to show something. Woody only looked at them all confused. He tried to take a guess nonetheless.

"Uuh... Do I understand correctly? That each of you has better experience on something else?"

After a short silent pause, both of them nodded.

"Yeah? You won't tell me what exactly?"

Both of the twins looked at each other precariously. This was the moment when Woody felt like to say 'nevermind'. Luckily, Joe already told everyone to get ready for the shooting. Without any hesitation the prankster went to the front door.

"Very excited, huh?" asked Joe near the door.

"It's better to start early when Rottweiler is still dumb to notice anything." replied Woody grinning at his director.

"Of course. Do your best." were Joe's final words before the great prankster left the house.


	13. Bath time

In the unsightly house of Roger Rottweiler, the old oaf was just about to prepare some pudding for himself in the kitchen, while Woody was slowly opening the entrance door and carefully glanced around. The coast was clear... so he quietly stepped inside. The new notes on his map and the glue which he borrowed from Shelly's house would be certainly helpful for this episode. First of all, he opened the chest of drawers, in which he found some black shoe polish. It could probably be used to mess up something really clean. Then the jokester went to search around the bathroom. The first thing he saw was that the water in the bathtub was running. It looked like his neighbour would finally clean himself! It was simply something unsurprisingly rare considering the neighbour's ill-smelling body odour. The next thing Woody saw was a white towel. He knew that it was used by Roger many times which is why it had his neighbour's smell, and that just wasn't swell.

Either way, he was aware that the towel could be ruined in some way but he wasn't sure how yet. Then the prankster found what seemed to be some yellow bathing beads from the medicine cabinet. They could be perhaps added into Roger's drink? He also took some hair-restorer from the same place, which he wasn't sure what to do with yet either. Woody moved on to the living room. There was only one new thing in that room - a small table with a bowl full of candy and a photo-album. The candy was understandable, especially judging by how overweight the greedy idiot was.

'The candy for some reason look like those bathing beads I found. Maybe if I swap them around, the glutton won't tell the difference.' Woody considered.

Which was exactly what he did - he moved out the real candy and threw them out from one of the living room's windows, then he placed the beads into the bowl.

'My neighbour will bubble over with joy!' Woody thought to himself as he smiled mischievously.

Afterwards, the prankster decided to check the photo-album. It only had pictures of the oaf's mother, and she was still horrifying even as a young woman in those pictures. As Woody flipped through one more page, there were a few stuck together by accident. That alone gave him a spark of inspiration for a trick.

'Ugh... these photos aren't fit for display! Maybe I can fix it!' with that thought, he started putting some glue on every page.

Meanwhile, Roger had just poured some milk into the mixer, but he decided to take a break for now from preparing the pudding, so he didn't bother turning on the mixer. But he may as well check how filled the bathtub was, and add some soapiness to it.

At the same time, Woody was finished preparing the prank. He entered the kitchen which is where he saw the mixer with milk in it.

'I think I should have took one bathing bead for that...' he was somewhat disappointed, 'but there should be another way of making it more foamy.'

Woody searched around the kitchen, but every cupboard was empty. He looked into the fridge as well, however it was also empty. It was no wonder why Roger was so fat! Woody found an empty bottle in the trash bin. Luckily, there wasn't anything else in there so it wasn't really disgusting. He continued on looking around for anything else mischief-worthy or at least for something that could help him with his deeds.

In the meantime, Roger intended to view the photo-album, probably again for today. Nevertheless, for some reason it would not even open. Surprised at that, the stubborn potato forcefully attempted to open it with all of his strength. It was a huge mistake of him, because the photo-album ended up being torn and its pages flying down slowly as if they were large confetti. He was staring at the mess in complete shock and couldn't understand why that happened. That was enough reason for him to shed tears and to angrily shake his fists. The fat potato experienced those mixed emotions until he calmed down a bit. Afterwards, he gathered every page and then put them back, even if they weren't exactly as neat as they were. Now some candy would fully calm his nerves... if they were really candy. When he greedily nommed a few of the bathing beads, he felt nauseous and wanted to throw up.

Just when Woody was heading to the bathroom, the door to the living room opened. It was the short moment when Woody stopped in place. His whole body froze in one state - in complete shock. As if he got hit by an arrow. Before he could think of what to do, Roger quickly ran to the bathroom door, covering his mouth, not even noticing that he had an uninvited person in his house. Finally he started vomiting into the toilet leaving the bathroom door still open. Even that the young man could only see his feet. He cautiously approached the wardrobe so he could hide in there and pretend he wasn't here at all. Once inside, he let the fear take over his body by quick heartbeat and shivering.

'That was one silly luck!' he started thinking to himself, holding his heart to make sure it wouldn't jump out of the chest. 'If he wasn't busy with any consuming problems... he would grab me... and most likely do some horrible stuff to me...'

He didn't want to exit the wardrobe. The thoughts of alternative incident were too much for the little guy to handle. But then he remembered that the show's new episode was still recording. Maybe he should finish his act of the day. Rottweiler finally left the bathroom, obviously feeling normal again except that he was very grumpy. Woody could hear his footsteps throughout the hall.

'No... I'll rather stay here!' his mind panicked, 'What am I saying? I should calm down. I haven't been noticed yet... yet... What if I get now? I simply don't want to! I don't! When Rottweiler leaves the hall, I'll just leave the house!'

Once Rottweiler closed the door to the kitchen, Woody got out of the wardrobe. He then stood on one place for about a half minute.

'...Joe wouldn't be really proud of me if I left everything behind...' he forced himself to go to the bathroom and do what he thought was the best choice - finish what he started.

When the prankster was there, the first thing he saw the frothy water in the bathtub, which was just what he needed for one of his tricks. So he rolled up his sleeves and put the bottle in the water to fill it up.

'I may as well pour the hair-restorer in the water.' he thought while doing so.

For understandable reason, he wasn't exactly in the mood for making up witty thoughts or comments. Either way, Woody noticed that while he was carrying around the small tin of black shoe polish, it made a mess in his pocket. At least that gave him another idea for a prank by smudging the white towel with the shoe polish. Then he quickly found the same soap from before when it was Roger's birthday. The prankster decided to drop it on the floor instead of trying to use it for any particular prank like last time. There was nothing else to do in the bathroom, so he exited it and went to the living room. Because of the immense shock he just had a few minutes ago, Woody was walking slowly and with heavy steps. The somewhat faint sound of door closing was heard, which meant that his neighbour left the kitchen. So the prankster entered there. Since he already had in plan pouring the frothy water in the mixer, he did just that carefully. After that, it seemed like there wasn't anything else to do for the prankster. But out of paranoia, he looked through the keyhole to make sure Roger wasn't there, and fortunately it was safe to go to the hallway. Then finally, Woody hid himself in the wardrobe, he still simply had to witness his neighbour suffering.

At this moment, Roger just slipped on the bar of soap. Because of the slipperiness, he ended up crashing into the wall and then fall on his back. Roger whined loudly and continuously from the pain as he tried so hard to stand up without falling back down. After all those incidents, he figured he should take a nice warm bath. If only that really was the case for him. Because if he wasn't hairy enough, then he definitely showed up as hairy as Bigfoot after bathing. It definitely wasn't a nice bath like he expected. Not to mention that things could get much worse for him when he reached for the towel and dried himself - now he was not only really fuzzy but also filthier than when he got into the bathtub.

Which is why the fat snake took a bath for the second time. It also took him quite awhile to remove most of the body hair. When Roger was done with that, he was feeling very tired. Because of that, he thought he deserved some pudding and decided to finish it. So the fat snake went to the kitchen. As soon as he turned on the mixer, it created an incredibly soapy and frothy mess to the point that he got himself a "beard" from it. Roger's expression was between shocked and surprised. However after he got over that state, it was the breaking point of his very limited patience which made him pick up the mixer, open the window and throw it out.

"I hate everything!" he thunderously yelled at the top of his lungs as he stomped around like a donkey.

Meanwhile, Woody very carefully opened the door of the wardrobe and peeked through the crack to see if it was safe. Because he was still kind of in shock from what happened earlier, he did his iconic gesture to the audience in a sort of nervous and half-hearted way. After he went outside, he let a deep sigh of relief - today's episode finally ended. As soon as he got home, Joe came to him and asked:

"Are you okay, Woody?"

The prankster didn't want to bring up the accident that almost ended badly, so he chose to lie about his state.

"Uhm... yes." was his short answer.

His expression was bland, giving Joe a reason to put his hands on Woody's shoulders and say:

"Show me your smile."

Of course he didn't. It wasn't possible for him. In his mind he dealed with the fact that the topic had to be brought up. While staying completely silent, his eyes looked worried to almost scared. The director led his host to his sofa which Kelsie left on purpose.

"Relax there, buddy. Sit down, let that all go." said Joe while letting Woody to have a seat.

Still scared about what happened he tried to show appreciation of the given care from his friend:

"Th-tha-tha-thanks f-f-for-for y-y-yo-your c-c-c-concern."

The director knew the conversation would sound odd in this moment, so he only sat on a chair next to the host and replied:

"Take your time to calm down."

The next half hour was really quiet in the house. Michael made a tea for Woody without any word whatsoever. If any of the crew had to say something to other one, it was done out of Woody's sight and only through whispering. The young man was thinking about the whole thing while taking a gulp of tea every now and then. By looking at Joe he assumed he was patiently waiting to have a talk again. No one in the room seemed to be in rush. As the time went by, Woody felt more and more safer around making him less scared. However, that didn't mean he was fully happy.

"I was one eyesight away from real Hell." he started the new conversation, this time his voice wasn't shaky at all.

"That right there was something unavoidable." answered Joe and also admitting: "But you did handle it pretty well through the rest of the episode."

He thought this line would comfort the young man, to his surprise it only showed how many doubts he really had.

"I was crazy. It wasn't me at all."

"It most likely was you when you obviously did it. At least that stupid hamburger didn't notice you."

"Don't remind me that, he was close to looking back."

Nick was listening to this conversation, and being the one who was shooting the living room scene he remembered one thing that he felt it needed to be mentioned:

"If he even did, he would be busy with the stuff he had in his mouth and you would run away."

Another line that sounded like it could bring some positive thinking into our hero. But Woody's doubts took over his mind, making him feel uncomfortable after this line and saying:

"I wouldn't... He would catch up to me..."

Joe couldn't believe his ears. The great prankster of the neighbourhood, the one who came up with the idea for the show, fully aware what he got himself into, says such stupid stuff as "he would catch up to me"!

"Don't be ridiculous!" angrily replied Joe. "His fat butt is too heavy to catch up to a small guy like you!"

Woody stayed silent. He didn't look at his director at all. That only made Joe more suspicious. He got in front of the prankster and asked:

"You don't want to get caught, do you?"

"No, I don't." finally Woody looked at him with unsure expression and concerned voice.

"Well? When you see you're in danger, run!"

"But I-..."

"No excuses! It's about saving your own skin! Would you rather let that fat man do with you whatever comes up into his mind?!" Joe exploded from anger which made every other member of the crew shocked.

Woody quickly shook his head for no, showing only fear of now scary director. After he calmed down from the sudden rage, he stayed quiet for few minutes. He then said calmly:

"Look, your job is of a prankster, you're not supposed to show up to the neighbour. Throughout the series you were very careful. Keep up that work and I believe you won't get noticed."

"I certainly will. And I'll be more careful from now on." the host replied without hesitation.

"I'm glad you understand."

"I now admit I was saying some silly things. It's just... I was like controlled by fear of this ever happening again." Woody added.

"It is true that fear can indeed change people. It's something no one can avoid. Everyone has to face it at least once in their lives. I believe this won't happen again. You're smart and swift."

Then Joe told his camera crew to pack up and put everything back to its place like usual. After some time, they were done and began to leave. While they were all leaving, Joe said to the prankster:

"Well, take care. We'll see you around after two days."

Woody said "bye" to him and the others. Few minutes later, he went to return the glue that he borrowed from Shelly's house. He put it back in the kitchen where it belonged and walked back into his house.

It was slowly setting up for evening in Blue Highway. Woody was at home washing up in the kitchen after dinner. While he was doing that he also had TV switched on to the channel which he was told Neighbours from Hell was aired at. The channel was well-known for airing mostly reality TV shows. There were still 10 minutes left for another reality TV show which the young man didn't pay much attention to. It was something about people on the farm... surviving... or something... then there was some silly humour about their clumsiness... Who cares? Even though Woody had quite an experience in the last episode, he still wondered how the audience would react to that. Apparently each episode was shown to the live audience and so far they loved every single moment of the prankster showing his skills, neighbour falling, yelling and lamenting.

The young man stopped with washing up for a while. In his mind he saw flashbacks of him preparing the prank with bathing beads, neighbour running to the bathroom in front of him, Joe telling him about the rules of pranking, the morning moment when he almost ended up being beaten... all those were showing up back and forth in unorganized order again and again.

'I'm thinking too much...' Woody put his hand on forehead trying to forget everything for today.

Only then he realized that someone was knocking on his door. He went to open and to his surprise:

"Hello, Woody." smiling Shelly greeted him with lemon yellow spotted bag.

It was that moment when he felt like his happiness finally returned. Seeing his trustful kind friend after days finally gave him a reason to smile again.

"Shelly… I'm glad to see you." finally he spoke some words.

"So am I." she replied taking one step forward, only to come back after quick decision with shy expression.

Woody wasn't quite sure what was that about, but he assumed he should let her inside. She kindly accepted his invitation by walking in. At that moment the voice from TV said:

"Coming up next on 'Blambot' - Neighbours from Hell!"

'Oh, SHOOT!' Woody got shocked realizing that the show Shelly didn't know about was about to start.

He quickly grabbed the remote controller from his sofa and switched the TV off. Phew! His name wasn't mentioned there. But still it seemed that Shelly was unpleasantly surprised just by hearing the name of the channel that was on. It clearly meant she didn't like that channel at all.

"Uuuh… I just had it on while doing wash up. I didn't plan to watch it." he said with an awkward smile on face.

Shelly believed him just because she indeed saw dishes on sink still needed to be washed. Nevertheless, she had an irate expression, giving Woody a little to no clue if she was angry at his choice of TV channel. He stopped smiling. She then only rolled her eyes as a sign of annoyance.

"What a cruel name..." she said it while sitting on the nearest chair to her that happened to be behind the eating table.

Woody sort of felt guilty for ruining her mood, so he tried to fix it by offering her a cup of tea. After making for both of them he sat down next to her asking:

"So... how were you? Did you enjoy the visit?" he was of course talking about Shelly's family visit.

She looked at him still with the same expression she had before, but without sounding mad she replied:

"Yes, I did. We had a special birthday party for my uncle. Then I went sightseeing with my mother, talked to my cousin..." Woody paid attention to everything she had to say.

She didn't tell that much about her experience, mainly because she didn't know how to present them in an interesting way.

"So you had fun with them, right?" he asked.

"Yes, I did." she replied. After a while she looked at her friend with small smile. As if she wanted to ask about his day. He of course wanted to avoid the thought of today's episode and tried to talk about something that couldn't ruin his now calm mood. He then remembered he was at her house that day and said:

"I borrowed your glue for wood and paper. I needed it for one thing."

"It's okay. I hope it served you well."

"I like your paintings you have there." he remarked, smiling.

"R-really?" she blushed, it was sort of surprising for her to hear that.

"Yeah. Personally I like the one with a tulip. It has nice red colour."

"Thank you..." she quietly uttered while looking at her mug of tea.

After looking at smiling Woody again, she let out her charming smile as well while still having red cheeks. Such praise was perhaps new to her, at least according to Woody's thought. He was glad he could support her talent with a positive opinion, because he didn't have the same skills as her. He had a different talent... a talent that his kind neighbour might never know about. It was better for him to keep his dirty job as a secret. Such innocent and sweet friend could get a different point of view on comedic yet still fair "game". It wasn't like he got changed, he was still the same Woody she knew.

As long as she was happy with him, he was still full of ideas and motivation for his job of prankster.

* * *

 **Author's note: I would like to thank Newbie1104 for the reviews, they were all helpful. Both me and my friend SailorRaybloomDZ took your advice from your last review, even though what's written isn't exactly how you suggested it.**

 **I would also like to thank her as well for helping me writing this fanfic and for being such a great friend.**


	14. Merciless neighbour

In the middle of the quiet peace stood a man. He couldn't be mistaken from anyone else. It was Woody with shiny light above his head and crystal clear wings. What could he be waiting for? He couldn't wait for his neighbour angrily walking towards him, could he? Calmly standing and hiding his hands behind he greeted him with a typical cheerful smile.

"There you are. I know your plan now." said the neighbour preparing himself to catch the shiny wonder.

He couldn't run to him right away or he could spread his wings and escape. No, he first wanted to make sure he was close enough, so he took small steps. Not scared by the glowing horns or sharp tail Woody happily replied:

"Oh, please. You and know my plan? You can't even catch me. Your fat belly sure slows you down and your bald head doesn't hide any wisdom."

"But I do know what allows you to do all those things. It's those smart wings you have. Once I outsmart them, I'll tear them to pieces along with you!"

The angry neighbour was getting closer and closer, till he was close enough that he could finally catch him. Woody still showing no concern hiding a saw behind his back only said:

"I doubt about it."

The ground below the neighbour started to shake and then he fell down through the hole that was created by the prankster before.

"Seems like I've sent you where you belong once again." waved him the satisfied young man, proud of his well-done prank.

But then the sharp tail came out of the hole and tangled around Woody's body. Shocked by it he tried to flap his wings. Unfortunately for him he got pulled through the hole down to the dark empty place. After falling on his face, he tried to stand up and quickly fly back up. However, the fall really left quite an impact, making his head feel confused of seeing chirping birds. Woody was in real danger as an evil laugh was coming from the darkness along with two massive hands. Those grabbed the crystal clear wings and teared them to pieces.

"Gotcha! You won't fly away now!" laughed the devilish figure that could barely be seen in that darkness.

The young man scared by his glowing horns and red eyes realized that he had no chance of escaping without his wings. He was dragged by leg to a pedestal and some tools laid on a table next to it. Hardly visible neighbour stood the poor wonder without wings on the pedestal and secured his feet so he wouldn't escape. Then he picked up the tools and laughed:

"You're going to be a lovely marble statue for my mommy-dear!"

Frightened Woody could do nothing to escape or even protect himself. He would however beg for sparing life. Before he could say his first words, the neighbour already started hitting his head. That immediately made him ask to stop constantly while whining over the pain he felt in his head. The pain overgrew to the point where Woody opened his eyes and took a deep breath. He was in his bed and in pyjamas like every morning. But this time he got very sweaty from the terrifying nightmare. He still heard the loud hitting of tools from sculpting statue which made him scared. That was until he checked the window and noticed Rottweiler indeed making a statue.

'Now you must ruin my dreams as well?! You're trying to scare me, but I won't give up that easily. I still have reasons to play pranks on you, mainly because you still haven't changed!' Woody thought to himself more angry than he was last time.

He then got up from his bed to change his sweaty pyjamas into something more comfortable. Throughout the whole breakfast, his next-door neighbour was making a lot of annoying noise and it wasn't just from sculpting the statue. Other noises came from his house like loud machine sounds and few swears. Why was he doing all that rumble? Oh yeah! It was Mothers Day today! And it just happened to fall under the Neighbours from Hell shooting schedule. Strange but interesting nonetheless.

After the breakfast, Woody was about to visit his kind neighbour living at the opposite side of the street. He believed that this was a way for brighter mood and maybe some small idea for a prank. But just when he got outside, he saw Shelly sadly taking easel to her house. That unpleasantly surprised the young man and he quickly went to her to ask:

"What's the matter, Shelly? You look sad."

She only wiped a tear off her eye, she was that miserable. She sobbed a little before answering:

"…I was painting a picture outside… for my mother… but… Mr. Rottweiler came to me and demanded my water colours and brush… Now I won't be able to finish my gift…"

This left Woody speechless. He tried to look worried to show some sympathy, but the thought of Roger demanding Shelly's own colours made him furious. In his mind he imagined how big horned Rottweiler threatened little Shelly with his scary look and even scarier voice. He thought to himself:

'I can only imagine how that devil came to her and scared her with his mean look and sharp words.'

Suddenly they both heard flapping of wings. On Rottweiler's balcony they could see Roger himself tying up a pigeon on the rail. The small bird was desperately flapping its wings to fly away. Another cruel sight from the merciless ruler of the neighbourhood. Woody then noticed that Shelly shivered for a short moment. He took her hand to calm her down and eventually turn her away from that horrific image. He offered an idea:

"You can make something else for your mother. Perhaps baking some cookies."

Shelly smiled slightly and said:

"Yes, maybe... I'll bake a cake for her..."

While still comforting her, the prankster was thinking how he could possibly punish Rottweiler for his bad deeds.

"I'm sorry for asking, but can I borrow your stain remover? I spilled some ink on my clothes." he asked his friend and gave a false reason why he needs it.

She happily nodded and went inside to find one. Woody waited outside while looking at the old stinker's house.

'Another reason onto the list of "why do I prank you". You'll soon see my surprise for you.'

* * *

It was time when Joe's crew should arrive at Woody's house. The young man had already prepared the stain remover and a saw for his special prank of the day. The crew eventually arrived and was happily welcomed inside.

"I do hope you're recovered from the last episode." said the director to his host.

"Sure, I am. And I have planned most of the pranks for today." replied the host.

"That's great. We finally bought a new camera!" after Joe said this, grinning Nick showed it since he was the one holding it for this episode.

This left the prankster overjoyed because of the great opportunity that was now given.

"Cool!... Could the camera be used for balcony?"

"Sur-... WHAT?!" Joe was about to agree but then he realised what the question actually was. He then bursted out of anger. "Have you forgotten my rules? No leaning out of windows!"

Woody tried to be reasonable with his statement.

"Not for showing up to others outside, just for some pranks there."

"Woody, I'm telling you: when you get noticed by anyone on that balcony, the show is over! I say OVER!"

"You can't have doubts about me. Sure, I almost got noticed, but this time I really need to visit the balcony just for few seconds. Believe me, I'll be really careful."

Joe stayed quiet for a while thinking about this. With a bit calmer face and voice he replied:

"Fine, do as you please. But then I'll scrap some from your salary if you get noticed on that balcony just by one person."

He then went with Nick upstairs to find a good place for the new camera. Woody was angrily looking at Joe, only to be then calmed down by Kelsie who was nearby.

"Don't be upset at him. Joe surely admires your talent, but you know how difficult your job is." she then smiled to give some comfort to her colleague.

The prankster knew about this all and a small support definitely brightened up his mood. In the meantime, one of the twin cameramen also went upstairs while the second one, Markus and Michael stayed on the ground. Michael pulled out his camera from a bag, only to pull out a comic book as well. He suddenly panicked and quickly hid the book. Woody noticed all this with confused expression.

"Why would you bring a comic book with yourself when you won't have time to read it here?" asked Markus who only heard paper noises.

"I-uh-only-I-ehm..." stuttered Michael.

"He might read it after the shooting." replied Woody for him, assuming that this was the right answer.

"Actually..." Michael was about to say something, but left his line unfinished, so nobody knew what was his intention.

Finally everyone was prepared and Joe went to check the rest of the cameras. After his approval, he approached the host once again.

"Okay... Well, we sure had a rough beginning, didn't we?" said Joe, this time not angry at all.

For Woody there was again an opportunity for humorous talk.

"You know how it's done: hardly on the training field, easily on the battle field. Except that on battle field I fight with humour."

"Just don't lose your sense of humour, you holder of comedy gold."

"I sure won't! How many pranks should I do?" asked the prankster out of curiosity.

"How many pranks did you do last time? Do six or seven if you can. Good luck!"

After those words, Woody left his lovely home to give Rottweiler another lesson he won't forget.


	15. Art for mom's sake

Woody was guardedly and slowly entering the house of Rottweiler as usual. This time however, the prankster was going to be a lot more cautious because of the terrifying experience from last time. He was also carrying the same saw he used in the "TV Afternoon" episode. His search for mischief-worthy tools started with the chest of drawers, but there was nothing useful. So Woody moved on to check the bathroom. On his way, he saw a pinboard that was fixed on the wall. Roger probably was forgetting about more things than just his own telephone number. Either way, the prankster carefully took out the tacks with one hand while still holding the saw with the other hand. A little later, he found out that it was kind of pointless looking around, because there wasn't anything useful either. He continued to check if there was anything in the living room. Even though he was guardedly looking around first before entering the room, he at first didn't notice a voice going:

"Peekaboo!"

Woody was immediately startled by it, but it turned out that there wasn't really nothing to worry about because the "voice" had came from a scarlet macaw parrot that seemed to be Roger's new pet.

"Peekaboo!" the parrot squawked.

That made the jokester unamused by it and only said:

"You're not funny."

"Funny!" it could only repeat part of his sentence.

The jokester only rolled his eyes in response to that.

"Funny! Gaaah!" the bird squawked again.

Because of those sounds that the bird just made, footsteps from the bedroom were heard and Woody hurried to the kitchen. After he made it there, he peeked through the keyhole and sees Roger just leaving the bedroom and asking his pet bird:

"Who are you talking to, Chili?"

"Raaa! Funny!" Chili somehow understood him, but could only screech.

"Shut up." Roger murmured to it, he just couldn't take that seriously.

It seemed that Chili was more or less like an alarm which was something worrying for Woody, another reason for him to be on guard. Either way, the first thing he saw was a potter's wheel. He took a closer look at it. After some inspection, it seemed to be powered by a diesel generator and he even noticed at what speed it was set.

'Seems like he's using this ancient contraption to power up his potter's wheel. It's set to a very low speed.' the prankster assumed in his mind.

Besides the potter's wheel was a stool which gave an idea for Woody to place the tacks on it.

'Well, they do say that acupuncture on the bottom can alleviate pain!' he thought with a self-satisfying grin.

There was also a wrench - another idea for the prankster to set a another trick for his neighbour. With the use of the wrench, he manipulated the generator to have the highest speed possible, perhaps more powerful than an airplane engine. Afterwards, the prankster decided to recheck the living room. He just didn't get the chance to examine around because of Chili, at least he now knew about it. Before reentering the room, he peeked through the keyhole again - the old oaf wasn't there and the red bird already fell asleep.

Woody now had to tiptoe in there so he didn't wake the bird. After some looking around, he noticed a statue of Roger's mother and that made Woody shudder from fright - it was certainly scarier than the portrait of her. He tried to put that thought aside after he saw a footstool near it. Upon looking at it closer, it seemed like the footstool could be easily messed up with bare hands, which was exactly what he did after he placed down his saw near him. Now the footstool resembled a skateboard.

Picking up the saw he walked to the door which he couldn't go in before. In the new room he realized he just entered the bedroom. It was a typical bedroom with obviously a bed large enough for someone as big as the big fat Roger. There was also a bedside table, a wardrobe with a mirror and something that caught Woody's eye the most - a really old-fashioned camera. Perhaps the grumpy neighbour was using it to take pictures of himself. He would examine it closer, if he didn't notice old fat Rottweiler on the balcony through the big window. He was about to go into bedroom, so Woody knew he had to act fast. He quickly hid under the bed. Roger slowly walked all the way from balcony to the living room door without noticing anything strange. The wooden tiles on floor wobbled by every step, it was a miracle they stayed strong. While observing this Woody was quiet like an unnoticeable tiny fly. The moment was indeed long, luckily not eternal. The fat grump finally left the bedroom.

Now the prankster could look at the old camera better. He found out that it only works with what seemed to be a pile of magnesium powder. A little spark and this magnesium powder would create a blinding flash. Not to mention there was also a bottle filled with it, which gave him an opportunity to take the whole bottle and very carefully pour some more to the pile.

'I think the pictures will be a little overexposed now' he thought while trying to hide his snickering.

Woody was about to go to the balcony, but he was halted only for a moment when he heard his neighbour's blaring scream from pain, supposedly from sitting on the tacks. The prankster then started sawing the floor into a shape of a circle. Not full circle though, just enough so anyone who stepped on it, would break it down. While sawing, these angry words from the grump were heard:

"Why the freaking Hell did this thingamajig make this stupid vase so freaking long all of a sudden?! It freaking hurt my handsome face!"

After listening to what he said, Woody only thought:

'Yeah, "handsome" in one million quotation marks...' and he didn't stop what he was doing.

Underneath him, Chili was looking at the saw with an expression between shocked and curious. The bird couldn't really tell if its owner was doing that or not. About a moment later, the jokester was done with the sawing, however the trap seemed obvious. So to be smart about it, Woody grabbed the nearest rug and covered the almost sawed floor. He then walked to the balcony while being careful enough to avoid his own trap-hole. Of course, Joe didn't approve of Woody visiting the balcony earlier. But it was needed, mostly to get Shelly's colours and brush back.

The balcony had a concrete ledge, square rough edges and a rusty rail which had a poor little pigeon tied to it by a rope. There was an easel with a half-finished painting of a dove of peace... which was ironic considering that the son of the Devil was trying to portray it. Roger apparently was using the miserable bird as a reference. But conveniently enough there were some pair of scissors nearby. The prankster went to take them and set the bird free by cutting the rope. That wasn't enough though, because it was needed for the unfinished painting to be messed up. So Woody got the stain remover from his pocket and began spraying it - the painting ended up looking very messy, it was hard to tell what it was supposed to be. Those spots and smears looked more abstractive. Truly an outstandingly expressive painting. Then Woody took Shelly's colours and brush that were near the easel and left the balcony. Luckily, nobody saw him there. This time instead of the wardrobe, he hid himself under the bed again and waited to witness the rest of Roger's suffering first.

After the hellish neighbour had nearly calmed down and recovered from the pranks, he figured he should at least continue working on the statue for his mother. When he went to the living room, Chili only looked at its owner curiously and chirped. The fatso climbed on the footstool and tried to carry on with the statue. Well, tried. Because as soon as he did that, he clumsily fell from the footstool and accidentally cracked the statue at the same time... then the head from it fell down. Now it resembled Nike of Samothrace which was better like that. However, Roger definitely didn't think so as he unleashed his wrath. Chili curled up from fright. Its owner was more enraged than a swarm of hornets, but then his mood had quickly changed to sad - he was about to tear up over the broken statue. His mother now won't get such a gift from him, but he thought that maybe photos of him and his painting with the dove were still enough.

With that thought in mind, Roger headed for the bedroom and walked to the camera, set it up, then posed in front of it. He believed that things would go smoothly with at least that. But he was wrong, because the camera's flash was brighter than thousand suns to him. He was fully blinded for a short time and was feeling really dizzy, which was why he was walking aimlessly and in circles until he stepped on the covered sawed part of the floor. That was one really heavy drop for him! Chili got more scared than it did when it witnessed Roger's sour-than-a-lemon mood - it was simply unexpected. It stared at the fallen old oaf for about a moment, but he suddenly stood up madly which made the poor bird startled. The grump was so furious that he was literally steaming like a teapot. Woody was trying so hard not to burst from laughter at all that.

Afterwards, when the fatso settled down a bit, he irritably stomped back to the bedroom, then to the balcony while trying to get around the big hole in the floor. The very first things he immediately noticed was that the pigeon "somehow" escaped, the painting was completely smudged up. Even the both colours and the brush were gone. Nothing could stop him from releasing his wrath, not even exhaustion. All of his gifts for his mother were ruined.

"How?! Where?! When?! Why?!" were the questions Roger spat out of his mouth.

Meanwhile, Woody was listening to that commotion while still hiding under the bed.

'Well, neighbour, if you can't answer those questions yourself, maybe you should try to ask someone else. Perhaps Chili!' the prankster thought to himself with a smile.

He got out of his safe-spot and sneaked his way all the way down to the hallway while the parrot was now sleeping despite the loud noises. When he got to the hallway, he did his iconic cowboyish dance gesture to the audience. He usually does his gesture right when he was done, but it wasn't exactly fully safe in both of those rooms for that. Well, for now anyway. Woody then walked to the main door and finally left the ugly house.

Quickly, he jumped over the hedge into his yard to avoid any suspicion. Next what he planned to do was to return Shelly her colours, brush and stain remover. After leaving the saw near his door he slowly walked towards her house. Finally, she shall smile again seeing her colours back. And all thanks to her kind and friendly neighbour Woody. But then hold on... if Woody hands over the colours to Shelly... wouldn't that be strange? Did he just visit the terrifying grumpy dog and... take them? The young man stopped in front of Shelly's door. He couldn't show up as a brave hero, otherwise she would maybe later find out about his heroic duty... and since she doesn't like reality TV shows, plus dislikes the name "Neighbours from Hell", Woody thought to himself:

'But she needs her colours for Mothers Day gift... I can put them into her mailbox! She won't find out it was me!'

And he did just like that. After putting the colours and brush into the mailbox, he could safely ring on the door. It was opened by Shelly with a white apron on.

"Oh, you're back." she started "I'm just finishing the cake. I also heard the postman."

"That wasn't really the postman." smiled Woody awaiting for her happiness over the delivery.

Shelly checked the mailbox and to her surprise...

"My colours! And brush as well! Was Rottweiler here? Did he really want to return them?" she asked full of confusion.

Woody only acted like he was after a big shock, fully calm and cheerful.

"Yeah. I was surprised as well. But he had a mad face. I guess he realized he can't paint. Not even a stick figure!"

The kind neighbour stayed quiet and still confused for a little while, then a soft smile appeared on her face. She took the stain remover which Woody handed over as well. She wanted to thank him for returning it, but she was too happy to say anything. She did look at him happily and that was all he needed. It was simply unnecessary to say anything else. This quiet moment was lasting for a while. The young man was thinking what else could be told, but then he remembered about his own mother.

"Well, I'll go. Hopefully your mother will like both of your gifts." he happily gave a sign of 'goodbye' with his smile and walked towards his house. Shelly smiled back in return with even brighter smile.

Once inside Woody saw almost everyone of the crew laughing loudly. He was pleased by that and asked:

"So, which part did you like the most?"

Most of guys replied with sawed floor and Kelsie mentioned even the broken statue. Joe slowly approached the prankster to say:

"I'm surprised by the result. Your visit of the balcony turned out to be a good idea after all. Maybe you can visit it anytime along with bedroom."

"That's not certain but when there's some opportunity there, I'll take it." replied satisfied Woody.

After the crew packed everything, Joe was the last one leaving the house.

"See you next time!" were his last words before closing the door.

Woody's day wasn't over quite yet. It was still Mothers Day and it would be nice to see his parents after such a long month living in this neighbourhood. He called himself a taxi. He also stopped at nearby flower shop to buy a small lovely gift. With that he could leave the neighbourhood and visit his loving mother and father.


	16. Parents

Woody was being taken to his hometown in a bland yellow taxi car. The taxi driver seemed slightly irritated perhaps the same way as another one that took Woody to Blue Highway neighbourhood on the first place. Unlike the first one, this guy was a lot younger adult. Our hero thought it would be a good idea to happily ask the driver:

"So, how are you going to surprise your mother today?"

The driver kept looking at the road in front of him and sounded very bored:

"Dunno... Just send an SMS... That's all."

'Well, what a boring response. At least he didn't grunt at me like the old fat grump from Blue Highway.' this answered Woody's main question - there wasn't any point of talking to the driver. But then what would anyone expect from a person working as a very busy taxi driver?

Finally they arrived at Kapfenberg. It was nowhere as busy as Vienna, with less amount of cars driving around and much more grassy fields and trees. It had no such interesting sculptures or statues of heroes, but it had green mountains surrounding the town. For Woody it was a typical scenery of a calm town. The taxi stopped in front of a block of flats. It was the prankster's original home where he grew up in. By an old looking elevator he got to the third floor. He then knocked at the door with a sign on it that said 'Trickster' with small bouquet behind his back. The door was opened by an elderly woman with dark brown hair and blue eyes wearing a pullover - a typical fashion among Tricksters.

"Happy Mothers Day!" happily greeted Woody and showed the beautiful bouquet.

His mother called Tamara almost wanted to cry of happiness, but she held her tears back and quickly hugged her only son tightly.

"My little sun! Welcome sweetheart." she said while trying her best not to squeeze the young man too much.

It wasn't her fault. She was just a loving mother. And as any nice and a bit of over-caring mother she even slightly pinched his cheeks.

"You still remind me of that small boy with that mouse plushy."

Then she let him inside and went to living room where his father was watching TV.

"Darling, guess who visited us!" said Tamara.

Woody followed her and greeted with a smile:

"Hello, dad."

The father was surprised by seeing his son at this time of the day considering it was afternoon way after the lunch. The father's name was Daniel and he completely resembled Woody with the same face and similar hairstyle. The only difference between them was that he had green eyes.

"Woody? Hello." he said precariously. "I didn't expect you to come."

"And you didn't believe me. I knew it all along. I knew you would come eventually." happily said Tamara while putting the flowers into a vase on nearby shelf. Their son took a seat on another sofa available and looked at both of his parents:

"I couldn't forget about you two. I had to come."

The mother then offered a tea. The two sitting on sofas agreed and so she went to kitchen. Father Daniel started a new conversation with his son:

"I've heard from my colleagues that you're working as a host of a pranking show."

"Hehehe, yeah, I am." awkwardly replied Woody.

Here came the moment he pretty much expected even before. He only hoped his parents would fully understand his motivation.

"To tell the truth, I first didn't want to believe it." continued Daniel. "I was certain that they were just joking. But then they showed me the first episode of the show and as soon as I saw you I thought to myself: 'Good grief, Woody is still an immature rascal. Mom must never find this out.' That was until I saw that cruel neighbour. Ew, what a pervert! It's good you showed him the lesson."

This cheered up the young man. Well, his father did understand the point of the show. Yet he still didn't know one thing...

"Aaand... how did mom react to this?"

The father's answer didn't come right away. His expression went from unsure to slightly unhappy.

"She... didn't buy it as quickly as I did. It was far worse. It took her days to calm down from it. I was on your side and tried to explain her your motivations behind the pranks."

Just when he finished this sentence, Tamara came with prepared mugs of tea. She immediately responded with:

"Just why would you do that, Woody? Our little smart boy, getting highest marks in school... And instead of working as an operator or a teacher..."

She couldn't finish her line because in that moment Woody tried to explain himself:

"Mom, please, you have to understand. This neighbour... it doesn't matter if he lives next to me..."

"Wait, you live next to him?!" Daniel was extremely surprised by this fact. Woody continued nonetheless:

"He makes a lot of noise! Spits out swears! Hurts postmen! Steals other's stuff! And police of that neighbourhood are useless! When I called them and they came, they just rolled their eyes and left me standing in front of my house!"

After that there was a big silence. The young prankster thought that maybe he went too far with that attitude. While the mother looked rather worried than disappointed, the father calmed down from his previous shocked state. He now realised everything from behind the scenes, thus he had no reason to complain about his son's job. He said:

"Before you left, you mentioned that you found a very well received house... I would never imagine it standing next to that disgusting man."

"I'm just... worried about you." said Tamara. She then approached Woody. "You're putting yourself into a big danger. My little boy, aren't you scared while walking around that house alone?"

"Uhm... Rarely?" replied the son, but then added with smile: "I'm always careful there."

"Sure, that man is bad and does bad stuff, but wouldn't you be glad if you became a teacher of really nice children?"

Her offer didn't please her son at all.

"…No. They would make fun that I look more like their classmate than a teacher with high respect."

"I told you..." said Daniel who was also disinterested in this idea. "It's better to spank immature adults than rude children."

Woody laughed at this statement, while Tamara looked at her husband with serious expression. But after he kindly smiled at her, she stopped looking so angry and took a stool from hall to sit next to her son. Daniel then continued the conversation with Woody.

"Well then, I hope you have enough ideas for pranks."

"Of course I do. I always come up with something." after a short thinking Woody got an idea: "Hey, I can make some prank inspired by your favourite The Three Stooges!"

The father thought a bit longer than his son, trying to think of what to say to that.

"I would throw a pie onto that neighbour's face. Is that possible?"

"Mmm... Kind of difficult to execute, but I might try it."

Daniel then asked another question:

"And how is your boss? Is he tolerant towards you?"

"Sure. His name is Joe Deen. He's my friend!" happily replied Woody.

But his father didn't seem to be as happy as him over this answer.

"Friend? My boy, that was a wrong move in my eyes."

"Why?" the young man was surprised to hear father's different opinion.

"You know, boss and employee, that relationship is hard to manage along with friendship at the same time."

Despite this saying Woody tried to tell some positives about his relationship with director.

"I'm special in his eyes. His studio started very poorly and I helped it to stand on its feet. We're doing great!"

"I'm still not convinced, I'm sorry to say. But I'm glad your studio is doing great. Even my old colleagues find your show amusing."

Suddenly Tamara jumped into this conversation:

"You two are keep talking about that job. Tell us something else. What about other neighbours? Are they better than that bad man?"

"Definitely!" replied Woody. "Another neighbour that lives nearby is Shelly. She's really kind and respectful. She also happens to be short like me."

His mother got happily excited and continued questioning:

"And do you spend time together?"

"Yeah. We sometimes have a cup of tea when we talk."

Then she asked:

"Is she pretty?"

And Woody couldn't help but to show his confusion on his face.

'Why are you asking me this, mom?!' he thought to himself trying to look normal "Well... I think yes." he then replied hoping she won't question about his expression too.

Luckily his father saved the situation by offering:

"I bet it took you a long time to get here and it's evening already. Wouldn't you like to stay for a night?"

"Sounds reasonable. But... you already sold my bed." Woody pointed out on that because naturally when he moved from this flat, they would get rid of the bed to save space.

"Don't worry, sweetheart." assured him Tamara with kind voice. "You can sleep in our bed. Dad can sleep on sofa while I will protect you from bad dreams."

The young man obviously didn't feel like a five year old anymore, so he suggested:

"How about you two stay in your bed while I sleep on sofa? I won't mind at all."

"Okay then... Have you eaten dinner yet? We could eat together now."

"No, but I'll be glad if we do. Thanks." Woody then stood up to wash his hands in bathroom.

After he closed the bathroom door, Daniel then suspiciously asked his wife:

"What was that 'Is she pretty' about?"

Tamara only smiled looking at her husband so lovingly and said:

"Don't you get it? It might be the same thing as with you in the 80s."

"Come on, a thing from far away past can't happen again. And certainly not the exact same way. That's ridiculous. We don't even know the details about their relationship."

After that they went to kitchen to prepare the dinner. Soon they were joined by their son as well. Things simply are done faster when more people are involved in it. Tonight's speciality was cheese spaetzle - dumplings mixed with grated cheese and browned onions on top. Just like they prepared the dinner together and ate it together, they even washed the dishes together. Finally it was perfect time to setting up for sleep. Woody was going to sleep in living room as he mentioned earlier. For pyjamas he borrowed one from his father since he wasn't prepared for this sleepover. Before closing his eyes and flying off to the peaceful blank space where most likely his devilish neighbour was waiting, Tamara approached him to give him a goodnight kiss. With that his day was finally over.

The next morning when Woody opened his eyes, he heard some small noises in the same room. When he looked around, he noticed his father searching through things in a cabinet. He was still in pyjamas, which made the young man even more curious.

"Dad, what are you looking for?" he asked while getting up from sofa.

"My marbles. You know, those ones that you used to play with." replied Daniel.

"I thought you donated them to kindergarten along with my toys."

"Definitely not. We kept that in our house for sure..." he kept searching in the cabinet, but didn't seem to find anything. Woody was just observing his father how he took some other objects out and placed them aside. Even after a while he couldn't find them and he let out a short sigh.

"Mom most likely cleaned the whole house again, so there's going to be a problem with finding them."

Woody then asked:

"Aaand why do you need them?"

"Well, I thought they would be a good use for you. Always carrying them around wherever you go and scatter them around when needed."

His son then smiled.

"Don't worry, dad. I'm pretty sure you'll find them eventually."

"When I do, I'll make sure you will receive them."

After the breakfast, Woody was prepared to return home. He called himself a taxi to pick him up outside. Before leaving his first home, his parents shared some words.

"Be careful while doing your job, sweetheart. Don't fall for your own pranks!" said Tamara who look worried just like yesterday.

"Don't worry, I won't. I would be one silly prankster if I was that oblivious."

"And don't forget to move swiftly." added Daniel.

"I sure will. I won't stop at one place for too long."

Finally it was time to leave. The mother quickly hugged her son and refused to release him, until the father stepped into it. Woody got into the elevator and when he looked back, his parents managed to say one last sentence:

"We'll have our fingers crossed!"

He smiled at them till the elevator door closed. He definitely had support from his family which came rather as an unexpected thing. From a mother who was over-caring but kind and from a father who was strict but humorous. At least he knew they were on his side. It would be worse if he was left clueless, probably thinking the opposite. But how could he? He was loved by his parents, there was no way they would abandon him just because he played a "game" with his neighbour. Even today it showed how much they were willing to support their only son.


	17. Surprise in a bag

Another day at Blue Highway - the neighbourhood full of strange surprises. The biggest attention seeker was (maybe intentionally) Roger Rottweiler, who was infamous for his mean behaviour towards others and his ruckus at his house. However, when the right day came, he was either even more annoying or he was a complete comedic clown. Neighbours around mentioned funny things like his yelling, constant swearing and sobbing, of course behind Roger's back. Indeed, someone or something had decided to haunt his house perhaps till his existence. And Roger? Outside he looked like it was nothing. He still gave mean look to others and punched any mailman that accidentally threw newspaper on his face. Who knows what he was really thinking inside...

Today Woody agreed to help Shelly assembling nice decorated shelves for her indoor flowers. He came to her home and did just that. After such hard work Shelly prepared some raspberry tea. While relaxing at the table they had a small chat in which even the often shy friend was brave enough to say something alone. She talked about her relatives like her uncle and their jobs like him being an ice cream shopper in a typical ice cream van. That brought her a childhood experience:

"He once opened his shop at a park. Nearby I was feeding birds with my mother. Then all of the sudden the birds went for the ice cream."

Woody laughed at this unusual but funny accident and Shelly giggled lightly. He then asked:

"And what flavor were they going for? Chocolate?"

"I don't remember." she replied while smiling.

The young man also came with a childhood experience:

"As a kid I used to believe that birds fly away from our country in winter to warmer places so they could have a vacation."

"Vacation?" Shelly was surprised of hearing that.

"Yeah! Like relaxing on beaches and stuff. Why else would they seek such places?" grinned Woody after saying that, leaving his kind friend trying to hide her smile while giggling.

He then noticed the time on the clock - it was an hour left before the crew arrives. He stood up and said:

"I have to go, I'm sorry."

Surprised Shelly asked why.

'Oh boy... Here we go again. What should I tell her this time?' he thought to himself. Luckily, it didn't take him long to come up with a lie.

"I promised my friend to look after his sick cat while he goes to check his mother in hospital."

"Friend?" she was unsure.

"That friend of mine who I visited before. His name is Joe by the way."

Well, he was right about the name. What about his relatives and pets? Probably some things were made up, but for the sake of no confusion while lying next time he mentioned his name.

"So he's not from this neighbourhood. I see." she said at the end.

They said "bye" to each other and Woody quickly went into his house to play a quick game of "I spy" on his next-door neighbour. He went from window to window looking for things worth of pranking, at least from what he could see. So far he only saw Chili the parrot eating a small cracker.

"I spy a prank for Rottweiler..."

He was about to check the kitchen and there he saw Rottweiler preparing something on the kitchen sink. Next to him he had prepared a new electric appliance in his house - toaster. It was plugged, meaning it could be used soon or later.

"...like for example a toaster!" thought to himself Woody who was fully excited at this moment.

He came up with a good idea involving the toaster. He searched through his house for a screwdriver and he also found few small springs. Hopefully this prank was going to be worth it. And finally the crew arrived just in time. Just when Joe went upstairs with Markus and Michael, Nick the redhead funguy asked the prankster:

"Hey, Woody, have you ever wondered what do the girls think of you?"

What the heck was he trying to say?! Woody was left speechless. He had no idea how to answer to this question. Kelsie and both of the twins who were there as well only facepalmed to this.

"Nick, for the love of god, try to think before saying something." said Kelsie who almost sounded miserable.

"Wha-?! I only... nonono, wait! I got it!" panicked the redhead trying to find appropriate words "Have you ever wondered... what fans of the show would like to tell you?"

"That sounds a lot better." admitted Woody "I honestly don't know, but why do you think I would have any female fans?"

Nick who was all joyous with wide grin suddenly dropped the smile. He awkwardly looked at the young man and then to the other members present in the room.

"...I don't know. Girls are often crazy for some men."

"You think I am?" asked Kelsie who appeared to become so angry that even the twins were scared of her.

"Of course not!" said out loud Nick. "Only certain kinds of girls who adore the guys so much they even bake cakes with the shapes of their heads!"

"Those kinds are crazy." the female editor rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I would hate to meet them in person." said Woody who was confused about the whole conversation.

It started with the unusual question and it still continued like that.

"Just wait, we will see..." Nick then approached one of the twins who was holding his bag and asked "Thomas?"

The twin shook his head.

"Boris, can you give them to me? Just for one showing."

Boris refused simply by holding his bag and not letting Nick look into it.

"Joe said Woody will get them after the shooting." informed him Kelsie which only raised more questions for the prankster.

Unfortunately for him, he didn't manage to ask what was going on, because Joe insisted on others getting prepared. The director wished good luck to the host and then he left his house after he made sure nobody was outside. He just closed the main door and headed to the Rottweiler's house. However, he only reached the hedge and a small kid jumped from it with a plastic bowl on his head and holding a plastic machine gun.

"Ha! You are attacked! I will take you as a hostage!" it turned out to be Timmy Akim, Olga's son.

The poor young man got shocked by the unexpected jumpscare.

"Surrender! Now!" shouted the little kid.

But the young man didn't take his game with the humour. He said:

"Quit with your Rambo stuff, you can't just run around scaring neighbours."

"I'm not Rambo. I'm Commando. My mommy is Rambo, she is baking cookies as a reward for our mission."

Woody felt like he was wasting time with this conversation, so he tried to find a way to send the kid somewhere else for a while so he could enter the ugly stinky house. He then remembered something...

"Do you know that 'elf thing' that goes into Mr. Rottweiler's house?"

"Yeah! He's a nice elf! He makes the old bad man angry!"

"He might be somewhere around. Perhaps you could find him."

The curious child only asked:

"Do you think he will come today?"

"Who knows?" winked at him Woody.

Timmy then quickly went to find that elf throughout the whole neighbourhood. With that, the prankster could safely visit the house to play the good elf himself...


	18. Sunny morning

Before entering the Rottweiler residence stealthily, Woody first peeked from behind the front door, glancing left and right. Then he stepped in and greeted the audience with his gesture as usual. However right off the bat, footsteps were heard which made Woody wanting to hide in the wardrobe. He certainly didn't expect that, but thank goodness for his fast reflexes. Rottweiler just entered the hall. The prankster cracked open the wardrobe very carefully and quietly so he could see what the old oaf was up to. From the looks of it, he was heading for the bathroom. Even when the old oaf closed the door behind him, the prankster didn't want to come out just yet because somehow he knew that he would be there only for a short time. He was right. Only after about a minute, Roger left the bathroom and walked to the kitchen. When Woody heard the sound of door closing, he got out.

'That was close...' he thought as he let out a sigh of relief 'Well, I'll head there after I check the chest of drawers.'

And that was what he did, the only useful thing he could find was a filthy shoe-brush. Then he walked to the bathroom, but on his way he stopped by the pinboard from the last time and took a lot of tacks from there. There was also that one flower which his neighbour called "Susie". It appeared to be watered recently because of the water drops on the carpet. After that, as planned, he moved on to the bathroom. He noticed a new-looking blue toothbrush which appeared to be just used, because it was slightly wet.

'So... I can only guess that Rottweiler was brushing his teeth as rotten as his attitude. I'll "help" him make his smile as bright as the sun.' with that idea in mind, he switched the toothbrush with the filthy shoe-brush.

Woody moved on to the kitchen, but stopped in front of the door and looked through the keyhole only to be safe. Roger was just putting away what looked to be a coffee tin and then left to the living room. Woody then entered the kitchen and had a look into the coffee tin his neighbour was using - the coffee itself seemed to be inexpensive from a supermarket - his neighbour was that stingy to buy only such cheap things for little money.

On a nearby countertop, there was a plate with a lot of sandwiches. The sandwiches somewhat looked like some things that had died. The white bread had that dried dehydrated texture. The filling seemed to be butter, ham and cheese which was slightly more normal, but Woody almost felt like gagging from that sight. How could his neighbour eat those things? After recovering, he considered putting something extra for the filling. For now he let that just a small plan. Besides the sandwiches there was also the toaster he saw earlier, but for now he checked the fridge. In there he found a jar of honey.

'No good use for this honey for now.' he thought.

He moved on to the living room. After entering the room, the very first things he saw were the red parrot Chili sleeping and the part of the floor was really damaged thanks to Roger's literal heavy falling in the previous episode. It also seemed like the old oaf attempted to repair it earlier. Because of the damaged floor, there were many broken wooden panels.

'It's really no surprise because of him being heavier than a load of bricks. Though I think some of those wood tiles could be useful.' and he took some of them. He then had an idea 'Actually... I think these could go great in those sandwiches, I also can improve the toaster.'

The prankster then went back to the kitchen... quietly and carefully so he wouldn't wake up Chili. Woody first unplugged the toaster and with the use of the screwdriver he disassembled most of the toaster so he could add small springs to make the small heating appliance stronger.

"Now the toaster is alive. Rottweiler has got his own Brave Little Toaster." he commented aloud, knowing his neighbour wouldn't hear him.

Then he put the wood tiles between the bread layers of all the sandwiches - that way whichever one Roger picked, he would always pick the "right" one. He chuckled mischievously when he was done, and then went back to the living room. The prankster tiptoed to the bedroom. After entering, the old oaf could be seen through the window setting the umbrella on the balcony with a strong rope. When Woody saw that, he considered of finding something sharp for the rope. He also noticed a watering can and a beehive somewhere above Roger's head which begged for a prank. However, Roger seemed to be finishing what he was doing.

Woody feeling panicked, straight off went to hide under the bed. It was a good thing the prankster did that, because the grump moved into room. The old oaf picked up a nearby folded deck chair and carried it to the balcony. There, he attempted to set it up - the keyword being "attempted" since he was struggling with doing that. This gave enough time for Woody to look around a little more thoroughly. It took him only about a minute to come across a small key with a red cross on its keyring from the nightstand.

'I think it's obvious what this key could unlock.' with that thought he put it in his pocket.

Afterwards he found bag of potting soil and a small dipper nearby, and with the use of the dipper, he picked up some soil from it. He left the bedroom to do some of his other deeds of mischief while he was careful enough not to drop what he was carrying and not awaken Chili. When the prankster got back to the kitchen, he took the coffee tin and dumped its content into the trash bin only to pour the soil into the tin. Woody remembered that he forgot to look into some of the countertops, there he found some pair of scissors. With everything here done, he continued on to the bathroom.

Meanwhile, Roger was done with setting up both the folding chair and the umbrella, but he was too hungry to relax. He thought eating sandwiches on the balcony would be better. The Devil's son grumpily headed for the kitchen. There, he simply took the plate with them. On his way back to the balcony, Chili woke up and only squawked:

"Peekaboo! Reee!"

Roger paid no mind to it and kept walking. When he was there, he set the plate on the nearby table, took one of the sandwiches and sat down (while surprisingly enough, the deck chair withstood his huge weight). He was ready to greedily devour the whole thing. But when he tried to, it was really painful to him because he clearly didn't expect the sandwich... or at least the filling of it to be really solid. If he had bitten into it any more greedily, he would of broke his teeth. Now the old swine had a terrible toothache and that was enough to make him throw an angry fit. After settling down a little, he reconsidered leaving to the kitchen again so he could just toast the slices of bread from the sandwiches. On his way he mumbled small mean words. Once again in the kitchen he put two slices into the toaster... and impatiently waited. About a minute later, the toasted slices suddenly popped up... right onto his face! Roger was now angry enough to have himself grab the toaster itself and violently throw it on the floor. When it didn't break the first time, he did that again at least three times until it broke into pieces. He obviously didn't want his own Brave Little Toaster...

At the same time, Woody was stealthily heading to the balcony after taking the weedkiller from the medicine cabinet. He couldn't use it on Susie the plant right away, because first - it wouldn't be a good surprise, and second - it had a label which said "Must be dissolved in liquid". When he got carefully on the balcony, he pulled out the tacks from his pocket and placed them on the folding chair. On the watering can he noticed earlier he used the weedkiller. He assumed it was specially for Susie which was oh-so-precious to the Devil's son.

"I wonder if Susie would like that?" he rhetorically asked himself while pouring the liquid there.

He also noticed the sun lotion which gave him an idea on how he could use the jar of honey. But wait... the spot was shaded by the umbrella wasn't the only problem... If he poured the honey into the bottle, the bees would attack him. So he thought about his plan for about a moment. The prankster used the scissors to carefully cut the rope that was holding the umbrella. Afterwards, he took the sun lotion bottle with him, went to the bedroom and closed the door behind him - now he could safely do what he had to do. He opened the bottle, gently poured the right amount of honey in it. When he was finished, the prankster turned back the cap tightly enough and then safely placed it on its original place. Nothing else was left to do but to hide under the bed and hear his hellish neighbour suffer from all of his tricks for today.

Meanwhile, Roger was merely holding his head from frustration, although he was calmer. He made some coffee for himself from the cheap coffee. However, after he gluttonously took a big sip, he felt really disgusted, not to the point of gagging but just enough to run to the bathroom to clean the nasty taste from his mouth. He grabbed what he believed was his toothbrush and brushed his teeth with... the shoe-brush. The result? His teeth looked like coal! Feeling even more disgusted, he went to actually vomit into the toilet. After flushing it, he attempted to clean his mouth as much as he could without the toothbrush because he couldn't find it for some "unknown" reason. Nevertheless, Roger decided to calm his nerves by taking care of his lovely plant Susie. He picked up the watering can from balcony and grumpily walked to the hallway. While on his way there, his pet Chili was woken up feeling startled by all the old oaf's stomping. Finally he began watering the flower while admiring it. Yet after around a minute, the lovely flower completely wilted away- it was no more. It was way too much for the loafer as he struck his forehead. He cried while spitting swears more than a sailor.

That took him awhile to at least slightly settle down. He considered that resting on his deck chair while suntanning would help him calm down further, though it won't help get over the loss of his beautiful plant. Roger got to the balcony and laid down, but he jumped up from the sudden sharp pain on his rear. He glanced at what the source of that was - some tacks "mysteriously" appeared there. Now his mood was a mix between surprised and furious, but his astonishment faded as he got more enraged by the minute. Then after some time, the loafer slightly composed himself enough and tried to continue relaxing on his folding chair. Well, it really was, until he decided to not get sunburned by applying some sun lotion. However, as soon as he applied it, a swarm of bees came out from the hive and began stinging Roger enough times to have him swell up more than his own prideful attitude, except that he looked worse than he already was. Even his very hurtful swellings didn't fully stop him from throwing yet another incredibly angry fit, but he groaned and yelled painfully with every movement and word.

That was how the episode for today ended. Woody got out of his hiding spot, he again first took care that Chili was asleep, then sneaked his way down and concluded the episode with his cowboyish dance gesture to the audience. The host of the show then finally left the hellish place.

Nobody noticed him jumping over the hedge dividing the two houses which was only good. Only on his yard he looked around and noticed little Timmy Akim running towards him from another side of neighbourhood. He literally took the searching of the mysterious elf seriously.

"I missed it! I missed it!" he said once he got to Woody.

The small boy was disappointed by his late arrival. He wanted to meet the elf so badly. The young man didn't leave him like that.

"Don't worry. You can still see miserable Rottweiler in his house."

After these words they looked on the balcony and saw Roger Rottweiler covered with swellings. His growling of pain sounded like it comes from a bear rather than a human. The child started laughing because of how their cruel neighbour looked now.

"That's funny! How did that elf do that?" the little boy asked.

"I don't know." lied Woody looking quite confident with gentle smile.

He then went into his house where he was praised by his director:

"Great job! You certainly got better since we got the new camera."

"Yeah, I've got more rooms to explore. And I always find something worth of prank."

Suddenly always talkative Nick asked:

"May I finally give him those letters?"

"What letters?" Woody was confused.

Joe then asked Boris to pull out the thing that he kept hidden just before the episode - a bunch of letters tied together by a thin string. Joe then said:

"These are letters from your fans. You see, I didn't want to make you feel stressed or overexcited during the shooting, so I wanted to give them to you right now."

Just when he was about to approach the host, Nick stopped near him and he kindly looked at him. He wanted to hand them. It seemed strange to the director at first, but then he complied and thus Nick was the one who gave the letters to Woody.

"Here you go, dude! Don't worry! I haven't read them! I don't know if some girls wrote you something or not."

After this claiming the young man got so excited of seeing so many letters in his hands.

"Thank you! Thank you very much!" he said.

"I wish you pleasant reading!" were Joe's last words before leaving with his crew.

At last Woody was alone. It was perfectly silent, surely not even the next-door neighbour would bother him (since we all know what happened to him). He sat down on his sofa and untied the whole pack.

'So many letters… and they are all for me?' he thought to himself. 'I haven't thought I would get so many. Which one should I start with?'

He then picked one randomly and opened it. Well, it was already opened but the letter was still inside. All of them were like that. It could be possible that Joe first checked the letter so Woody wouldn't get waste. On the letter it said:

 _\- Dear Woody Trickster,_

 _I watch every single episode of your show and I very enjoy it. Please keep on going, me and my friends would be glad! -_

'Well, this one is short and nice. Which one shall I pick the next?' another one got into his hand.

 _\- Dear W. Trickster,_

 _I adore your show. Every evening I relax in front of TV by watching it after such a stressful work. I've got a question, how did you meet Rottweiler? Have you randomly come across him or has he moved into your neighbourhood? It seems like a bad luck to me when I look at it. But it might perhaps help your show since it's very funny seeing that old greedy guy slipping on his own soap. Good luck with your new episodes! -_

For next one Woody closed his eyes and picked a letter, giving him a bigger surprise once he checked what was inside.

'This one has no text? It's a picture. A drawn picture of… me?! That's me! Somebody drew me!'

He spent the rest of the day like that. He read all of the kind messages from his admirers. Few of them included a small surprise in form of a picture, whether drawn realistically or with an attempt of that. Nevertheless, there wasn't a single letter that didn't disappoint our hero. He surely had fans on his side and that is always important for a host with a dangerous yet artistic job of a prankster.


	19. Dog trouble

It was quiet morning in Blue Highway. Woody was still in his bed dreaming about his angelic self pranking on the terrifying devil Rottweiler. He would dream on and on because nobody around seemed to make any loud noise. That was until his phone on the nighstand started ringing. Such unpleasant alarm clock revealed that it was 6:13 am and the call was from Joe. The young man picked it up, yawned and said:

"Hello?" he sounded very sleepy.

Perhaps his dream was that good he wished to see the rest of the story.

"I'm highly sorry for bothering you at this time, Woody. But I have to inform you that the next shooting is going to be today but at later time than usual."

"Okay..." said the short sleepyhead willing to hang up the phone.

But Joe wanted his host to know about the whole situation.

"Just hold on till I explain you why this is happening. The manager's just called me and he said we should have a meeting. So he decided for tomorrow afternoon, which you know is when we usually do our shooting. Despite me urging for a different meeting hour he insisted on his idea. I have no other choice but to move the shooting for today. I called the rest of the crew and I made a deal of arriving to your house at 17:30 pm."

Woody listened, but was he paying attention? His eyelids were slowly dropping and he even let out a small yawn.

"So in conclusion, the next episode which we shoot today is going to be released tomorrow. But you've got a lot of time to plan out your pranks. You're doing seven of them, okay?"

Woody was quiet for a moment. He had closed eyes.

"WOODY!" yelled Joe on the phone which woke up the prankster to the point he got shocked.

"Seven pranks, understand?" he asked again.

"Yes, seven pranks." the young man replied.

"Good, now you can go back to sleep again. Again, I'm very sorry for waking you up." he then hung up.

Woody looked at the phone and thought to himself:

'... Couldn't he just send a message? I would read it anyway...' and he dozed off again.

After about two hours later he finally was ready to fully wake up. But something was strange to him... no yelling, no loud rumble, no nothing. What happened? Did the devilish neighbour finally go to Hell? It was his only rightful place after all.

'Oh yeah, today is the shooting!...' he remembered 'I hate to think like that, but Rottweiler should return soon so I know what to do for pranks.' with that in mind he decided to get newspaper that just arrived.

Meanwhile his neighbour Shelly was doing some gardening in front of her house. They noticed each other and greeted with kind smile. At the same time Rottweiler's dog Mort was left outside without leash on. His curious eyes laid on Shelly digging a hole with a dipper. It could be dug up for his bone he was chewing right now. He immediately rushed to the unsuspecting lady and jumped in front of her to dig the hole even deeper. Poor Shelly screamed from fear. Our hero Woody noticed all this and quickly ran to the rescue with the newspaper in his hand.

"Ksha! Go away!" he yelled at the dog.

He intended to hit him with the newspaper, but at the last moment he reconsidered to cover Shelly instead while showing a fight pose. It didn't do very good. Mort angrily growled as if he wanted to bite. Both Woody and Shelly shivered of fear that they were stepping back.

"Woody, please, let's go inside."

And so they went to Shelly's house. Once they closed the door, they could see through the window that Mort returned to the dug up hole. They both watched him for a while - Shelly all worried, Woody fully angry. Woody then thought to himself:

'That's enough!'

He went to the kitchen. He came back with a slice of ham which he then threw far away from Shelly's yard.

"Catch this!"

Mort immediately ran to the ham slice and so he was no longer on the yard. Hooray! The day was… saved? The yard was messy from the dirt but at least it was just that and not certain dog stuff. Even the flowers seemed to be okay.

"Thank you." said quietly Shelly while trying to look at her friend yet ended up observing the carpet instead.

"You're welcome. I think you'll need some help with gardening as well." replied Woody. Shelly quickly said after this line:

"No, no, no! It's okay… I can do that."

They both then went outside. They talked a little while Shelly was replanting some flowers and Woody slightly helping her.

"It's so quiet around, isn't it?" asked Woody.

"Yes, it is."

"At least we can enjoy this silence without Rottweiler."

"I heard that he went to markets with his mother." said quietly unsure Shelly.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing… I'm not actually sure… Ms. Akim talked to him before… and I didn't quite hear everything."

"I see." said Woody to his kind friend while also thinking: 'I'm not sure what I should be ready for, but he might still return… hopefully.'

Few minutes later Olga Akim got out of her house with a small cactus in a flower pot. She noticed the two short neighbours and greeted:

"Hello Mr. Trickter and Miss Haward. How are you today?"

Woody's typical reaction on this neighbour was trying to look at her face rather than her giant women basketballs and he answered precariously:

"We're fine. Right, Shelly?"

She agreed by nodding also looking unsure just as him. Olga had no intention of investigating further. With a pleasant happy expression she went to Rottweiler's front house and put the cactus on the front carpet. Usually nobody would dare to enter his yard when Mort was unleashed, however, Olga was like the only person that could walk around with no problem whatsoever. The fact she looked like one of the bodybuilders made the dog scared and hide behind the house where he usually spent his time.

'Why would Olga put a cactus in front of Rottweiler's front door?' Woody thought to himself.

He wanted to ask her about it, but then again he didn't want to end up in a chat when he was with Shelly. He had yet another mystery to solve.

It was afternoon. Finally the big stinky star arrived - Roger Rottweiler. He walked all the way from the beginning of the neighbourhood to his house with a big bag on his shoulder. Strangely he was also carrying a cage with a small pig in. Woody heard its oinking and thus he watched his neighbour. The old oaf had to stop in his yard by putting the cage on ground and straighten his back. Surely he wasn't used to long walks, such a lazy butt. When he got to the front door, he accidentally kicked the pot with the cactus that was put there by Olga.

"What the Hell…?" he was surprised.

He inspected it and noticed a note on it which even Woody didn't know it was there. At last he took the cactus and the cage with the pig inside.

'Rottweiler got a new pet? How unusual.' started thinking to himself Woody. 'Hopefully it won't spread out alarm just like Chili.'

He further watched his next-door neighbour through different windows. He left the pig in hall, in living room he pulled out some porcelain jar of chips and chemical set. Chili who was there at the moment squawked with a happy expression. Roger only looked at him greedily and took the jar of chips to the kitchen.

"Someone's going to eat the chips." Woody started to talk to himself "I wonder how could I possibly make their taste better… Wait!"

He then ran to the kitchen and started searching through cabinets. In one of them he found bag of corn chips with pepper flavor.

"Bingo! Good thing I left this and didn't eat it yesterday when I watched The Mask!"

He then decided to taste it out of curiosity. Yup, pepper is quite a hot flavor... but not hot enough. He then decided to season the chips with more pepper he had in a small shaker. Oh boy, now Woody let out a tear, it was so hot that from the very first sight his eyes were watery! After doing that he checked his drawn map to see if he could think of anything else. It was 17:05 pm already and suddenly he heard knocking on his door. Woody immediately went to open and to his surprise it was Joe with his crew.

"I think you're here early." said Woody.

"We are? Well, we can wait for that half hour till you're ready." replied Joe.

"No no no, it's okay, I'm prepared." explained himself the prankster while letting the crew inside. Nick then just happened to notice the bag of now extra spicy corn chips.

"Oh cool! We've got munchies!" he was about to take some when Woody quickly grabbed the bag.

"No! Those are not for you! I'm taking them to the house."

"Hey, not fair! We've got only mineral water and juice and the host gets munchies while working!" Nick was confused that he said the first things which came into his mind.

"Honestly," started Kelsie "I wouldn't take a single small bite from those since you want to take them into stinker's house."

"Yeah, it's a trap!" said amused Michael.

"Did you poison them? Or did you put something disgusting into those?" asked Markus.

His first brutal question shocked every other cameraman around. Woody only calmly replied:

"Only improved its taste. Poisoning them? There's no need to. He's already made of poison. You can tell by his ugly face."

Joe then ordered everyone to get on their places. When everything was prepared he approached Woody near his main door.

"Alright, you've got plenty of time for this episode. It's going to be released tomorrow."

"And I've got seven pranks to do. Don't worry, I've got it!" said cheerful Woody who was ready for the whole thing.

"Good luck, pal." were Joe's last words before Woody left his house...


	20. One little piggy

In a stealthy manner, Woody approached the house of his neighbour yet again. As usual after he guardedly went inside, he greeted the audience with his gesture. First the prankster saw the caged adorable small piglet from earlier. Woody was surprised at first to see it so close, but it didn't seem to raise an alarm while he was around it which was a good thing.

"What a nice little piggy." he commented as he petted it "I'm sure it wants to get out of its cage."

Suddenly footsteps were heard from kitchen which meant that no other than Roger was coming. Woody's immediate action was hiding in the wardrobe, but he still carefully cracked open its door so he could peek through it - his neighbour unlocked the cage, shook a baby bottle filled with milk and started feeding the piglet with it while he was murmuring something to himself. Good thing that the old oaf was partially deaf.

'Fattening it up just like yourself, Rottweiler?' the prankster thought 'That's a smart idea. Other than that, I could somehow get that key for the cage...'

After the old oaf was done feeding it, he then went back to the kitchen. That was an opportunity for Woody to get out of the wardrobe. He checked through the keyhole to make sure it was safe. Roger there placed the bottle on one of the countertops and then made a big yawn like a crocodile, meaning that he was already tired. So he now headed for the bedroom. After the coast was clear, Woody started searching around the kitchen. He saw that one porcelain jar from earlier. After lifting up the lid of the jar he could see some corn chips there. The jar was only begging for a prank. In the fridge he found a bottle of hot sauce, jar of peanut butter, potatoes, jam and an apple. The spicy chips that he had with him were already incredibly pungent, but he thought the hot sauce could be useful for something else. There was also the baby milk bottle on the countertop meant for the little piggy.

Afterwards, he precariously and carefully went into the living room where the red parrot Chili was sleeping. He also noticed the chemical set from earlier. He sneaked to the chemical set and looked through it, until he found a bottle of nitroglycerin which had a label with the warning "DO NOT SHAKE!" on it. Woody remembered that his neighbour was shaking the milk bottle before feeding the piglet, so the nitroglycerin bottle would definitely help him in his deeds. He tiptoed to the bedroom door and he didn't need to peek through the keyhole, because he could already tell by the sounds of snoring that Roger was sleeping. Woody felt scared of going in the room, but unfortunately he had to, so he slowly cracked open the door and went inside. The snoring was so loud that even a sawmill would seem quiet compared to it.

'Boy, his snoring sure shatters the windows!' the young man thought to himself.

Woody was going to check the alarm-clock so he could see at what time his neighbour would wake up. But at that exact moment, Roger shuffled around in his sleep which scared the prankster to the point where he had to stop himself from gasping; he thought that he was going to awaken. Luckily the old oaf was still asleep, so he calmed himself down enough to continue in his doing. Judging by how the damaged the small mechanical device was, Roger was most likely hitting it violently when waking up. The young prankster also noticed that the immobile small extra "hand" on the clock appeared showing that the clock would go off soon. This gave Woody a good reason to set it to later time by turning the knob at the back. While the prankster was doing that, Roger made some low murmurs in his sleep which made Woody quietly but nervously go:

"Shhh... shhhh..."

Now that he was done changing the clock's setting, he had a lot more time to do the rest of the mischievous deeds and explore more thoroughly. Either way, he saw on the shelf above him there were some dentures in a glass of water. It was somewhat high for the prankster to reach the glass, but he still barely managed to do so. He got the bottle of hot sauce from his pocket and poured most of its contents into the glass to make the dentures Mexican-styled. After putting the glass away, he tiptoed across the rest of the room. There was a wooden board with a key. Its keyring had a small picture of a pig which most likely meant one thing - it was for the piglet's cage. Woody guardedly grabbed the key and went straight for the balcony. Nothing significant there, except that on a table there was that one potted cactus he saw from earlier today which also had the same note. Woody's earlier curiosity was answered after he read it - it was a gift for Roger's parents for their anniversary. The prankster only rolled his eyes on such stupid thing.

"A cactus is a great bouquet for a mother of mean greedy baldhead that also hurts others. I believe she might be the same." he commented under his breath "She didn't even pick up the phone when he called her numerous times on his birthday."

With another idea for a trick on his mind, the young man picked up the potted prickly plant while being careful not to hurt himself with it. He carried it to the bedroom and put it behind the alarm-clock. With the old oaf most likely hitting it so forcefully, he would definitely get a sharp awakening from that prank. There was no other prank to pull for now, which was why Woody left the bedroom. Though in the living room, there he was "greeted" by awakened Chili by screeching:

"Peekaboo!"

"Rottweiler won't wake up now." he said, but the bird didn't really bother him.

"Raaa! Funny!" the parrot still squawked loudly.

Woody didn't pay any mind to it, especially when it wasn't the biggest threat to him, so he safely got back to the kitchen. He already knew what pranks he would do now. He picked up the porcelain jar with the corn chips and dumped its contents into the trash bin. He then poured the really spicy pepper-flavoured chips into the jar and put it back on the countertop.

'I wonder whether the parrot, Chili, likes chilli? Maybe he would enjoy these spicy corn chips.' he thought to himself.

Afterwards the prankster only swapped the milk in the baby bottle with the nitroglycerin he had from chemical set. It would surely be an explosive surprise for the old oaf after shaking it! Finally he headed for the hall where the caged little piglet was. Woody now had the key for the cage which was why... he could finally free it! As soon as he did exactly that, the adorable small animal almost immediately jumped to his legs while oinking happily.

"Huh? Oh my..." it looked like Woody didn't expect that.

Though it was surprising, he still smiled while petting it. The little cheerful thing just snuggled his legs!

"Nice little piggy. Do you want to eat?"

It wasn't exactly clear if the piggy understood anything he said, but it was still oinking and even wagged its tiny curly tail.

"If you are then follow me."

With those words he walked back to the kitchen and it really did follow him there. The prankster opened the fridge and tried to think what to feed it with.

"Well, let's see... Potatoes? Jam? Peanut-butter? What would you enjoy most?"

While he was talking, the piggy was oinking and lovingly snuggling his legs as if it was some sort of little cuddly kitten. Then the animal simply put its snout into the fridge out of curiosity and sniffed what was inside. With no long thinking it took the apple with its mouth.

"Serve yourself, I'm opening the peanut-butter for you." the prankster in the meantime was trying to do just that.

It was difficult to do such a simple thing. At least the piggy was happily munching on the apple. After a lot of effort, he was able to open the jar, the piggy ate the whole fruit by that time but it still seemed hungry. He kneeled down and let it eat the peanut-butter straight from the jar itself.

"Don't forget to empty yourself before Rottweiler arrives." he said to the little piglet.

In almost mere minutes, nearly everything was gone. He still put back the empty jar in the fridge. Since pretty much everything was done in this room, he left to where he was, while the piglet was still following him. Well, it seemed like he didn't fully explored the hall, because he found few more tacks from the pinboard. Some of them were used for sitting in previous episode... so why not for lying on them? That would be surely priceless to pull off.

Meanwhile, the alarm-clock rang loudly which awakened Roger from his hibernation. However, he supposedly was going to hit the mechanical device, but instead he pricked his hand on the cactus. His drowsiness instantly faded as he screamed like a bear with a sore throat, then it was replaced by his anger which was just as bearish. It took him some time to pull out the thorns from his hand one by one. Afterwards, the bear got up from bed and reached for the glass with dentures, while of course not noticing anything strange about it whatsoever. He pulled them out of the glass and placed them back in his mouth. The immediate result was literal breathing fire like a dragon. It hurt like heck for him, but it didn't stop him from throwing an angry fit. After he calmed down a bit, Roger walked to the wooden board where the key for the piglet's cage was. It clearly wasn't there, but he thought that he might have misplaced it somewhere, so he shrugged it off and decided to feed the small animal while supposedly was in its cage until he finds the key. The old bear headed for the kitchen while Woody could hear his footsteps. By that time, the piggy finally did its business on the floor.

"Goooood little piggy, good boy." he said to it.

The prankster then decided to enter the living room after his neighbour enters the kitchen. When the sound of closing door was heard, he acted fast but stealthily by going into the room he had planned. The piggy began squealing at a high-pitched tone and hopping, since it seemed like it wanted to follow him around again.

"Shhh... I'm not here." he whispered to it before closing the door.

Then the prankster tiptoed to the bedroom. After going inside there, he placed the tacks under the cover of the bed. After that Woody was planning to hide under the bed... but he changed his mind after he saw something disgusting poured there. Hiding at the balcony wasn't much of a bright idea either, but he could just kneel down if there was a risk of being seen by anyone outside. It was a reason enough to hide there for now. Exactly then Roger's furious yelling was heard - he saw that not only was the little pig running around freely, but it also left a "surprise" for him on the floor. The old oaf obviously hated it.

"Get back in your cage, you stupid pig!" he scolded it as he forcefully pushed it back into its cage.

The poor animal was squealing fearfully. Once in the cage it calmed down because it wasn't forced into anything. Roger shook what he thought was the baby bottle with milk, but then that bottle exploded right in his hand and face. That nitroglycerin sure did a number on him! His expression was between shocked and confused, but it was quickly replaced by rage. Roger stomped around and waved his arms around like a lunatic. Around a minute when he somewhat settled down, he remembered that it was time to feed Chili so he walked back to the kitchen. There he picked up the porcelain jar and carried it to the living room. Chili was now awake and squawked:

"Peekaboo!"

The old oaf pulled out one of the corn chips and reached it to his pet bird.

"Lunch time." he mumbled irritatedly.

"Reee!" it screeched joyfully while crunching on the chip.

The bird didn't even ate much from it and it already breathed fire into Roger's face. It was that spicy! Again, the loafer was bewildered and surprised at first, but then he quickly started angrily shouting at the parrot and at nothing in particular while stomping back to the kitchen. Well... it seemed like there wasn't anything else left for Woody, except to witness his neighbour falling for the prank with the tacks on the bed. However, after such crazy day his mean neighbour could feel sleepy again much much later, which was why he decided to leave. Staying in the house for way too long even when being cautious could be still quite risky. Woody went to the door of the living room and peeked through the keyhole to see if it was safe. Chili was already asleep again so he sneaked to the hall. From there, he only headed to the main door. When he exited the ugly building, Woody only had to jump over the hedge to avoid any suspicion. Then he finally got to his lovely home.


	21. Talking about comic books

Just when he closed the door behind him, the director approached him.

"I think you have forgotten something..." said Joe. Woody wasn't confused at all.

"I haven't. I know I've got one prank left. It's the prank with tacks in his bed."

"It might take some time for him to go to sleep again. Could you do one more prank there or do you want to end it here?"

The young prankster didn't hesitate at all, he quickly replied:

"Hey, this prank could be funny! Imagine him being all sleepy like me this morning. Slowly dropping his eyelids, walking slowly, and then... You can't just miss that!"

After that Joe reconsidered:

"Yeah, you're right. If it wasn't of that moved schedule, this could not be possible." He then turned to his cameramen.

"Who's able to stay here with a camera for the finale?"

Everyone stayed quiet except for one:

"I could." It was Michael who happened to be shooting the scene at the hall.

"Alright then. Everyone else, we're done here for now."

Joe ordered the rest of the crew to pack their cameras. Before leaving he went upstairs with Michael to show him where his camera should stand in order to shoot the bedroom scene. Finally he was ready to go.

"Tomorrow you'll see the full episode with final part included. Have a nice evening!"

"Bye everyone!" said Woody to the rest of the crew.

So now it was just him and Michael. Both of them were in working outfits... or at least Michael. Woody was quite used to wear his typical blue sweater with red and white stripes even when going out as prankster.

"You can take off your vest and cap." said Woody.

"Can I?" asked unsure Michael, but then he did leave his vest and cap on the coat hanger next to the main door.

The only thing he took with himself was his bag. They then settled down in Woody's bedroom where the camera was also placed with warm fruit tea in mugs.

"Well, what shall we do now?" asked the young man.

"Hmm... Oh! I've got comics here with me! Are you interested in them?"

Michael's answer did surprise Woody a little. He had never seemed to get into comics before, maybe because he hadn't read that many. With slightly unsure but still cheerful expression he answered:

"Why not?"

This pleased his friend and immediately he pulled out few comic books. It is said that you should never judge the book by its cover, but for Woody the covers of the comic books looked too ridiculous. They were nicely colored, but the heroes and their names were very odd. Some guy named either after some cool sounding thing or the typical cliché insertsomeword-man. And their designs? Most of the time they appeared with very tight suits revealing their muscles. Woody didn't like that kind of outfit. Nevertheless he kept a positive expression.

"These are my favourite comic book heroes. You remind me of Spider-Man!" said Micheal excitedly while showing a comic book about that superhero "Kind of. He's pretty cool too!"

"Pardon me?" the prankster's expression was between confused and unamused. "Spider-Man? What makes me so spider-like?"

"Well, the way you sneak around the neighbour's house reminds me of how Spider-Man can also sneak around. He's climbing on walls and ceilings and you hide in various furniture. Then he's got so called 'spider-sense'."

"How original..." commented quietly the host with sarcasm.

"It's something like additional sense..." he continued "You see, he can easily sense close coming danger. Like you when you when you sense the nasty neighbour around and you act very quickly."

There was about a moment pause, because Micheal was looking at another thing from the comic before he added:

"Then... Oh yeah, he's got a girlfriend - Mary Jane. He keeps his superhero identity as secret in front of her."

When the blond mentioned the line "he's got a girlfriend" it left Woody shocked. It wasn't any better since he was just taking a sip from his drink at that exact moment. Because of that, he choked a little on it and simply turned away red-faced embarrassment, because he was expecting some unwanted questions.

"Is something wrong?" asked Michael.

"No..." his replied while thinking 'Don't ask me about girlfriend!'

The spectacled cameraman didn't seem to pay any mind to his somewhat strange acting since he was too engulfed into his hobby which was a relief for Woody. Micheal only carried on talking about it:

"I think it's right to keep own superhero identity as secret in front of girlfriend. Because if villains find out about your love interest, they might kidnap her. I would do that, too. So would you."

The prankster finally settled himself down from the previous state.

"Superman, however, does a bad job at this." Micheal started ranting with an annoyed face "He wears no mask when he's being superhero and when he's Clark Kent he just wears glasses. Like... is that supposed to be his disguise? Can you imagine having plain big glasses as a disguise to hide your superhero identity?"

"Maybe if those glasses had a fake nose as well, that could work." Woody jokingly stated.

Michael laughed at that slightly awkwardly and added:

"They would give him an entirely new identity. Like when the Headless Horseman put a severed head on his body in Joe's movie."

"Wait, you know about that movie?" Woody suddenly got so amazed hearing more about Joe's mysterious movie.

The movie that literally served his face to the faithful fans. Michael quickly replied:

"No, no! I only heard this from Kelsie. I only joined JoWood studio when I was invited by her along with Nick."

This disappointed the young prankster.

"Then I have doubts any of you except Kelsie knows much about that movie."

"You're right. We try not to talk about it in front of him. He would be pretty mad like Hulk. Other than that, he is very good at directing and managing the studio. After work he can be a really fun guy."

Suddenly they heard a loud scream from Rottweiler's house. They immediately looked out of the window and saw Rottweiler holding his bottom and running around the bedroom.

"Awesome!" laughed Woody "I wish I could see that whole."

"We've got it recorded." said Michael and after few seconds he turned on the recorded video on the camera.

He rewinded to the part where Roger was about to go to bed. He walked slowly to it with closed eyes as if he was sleepwalking. Then he jumped on the bed, thus receiving an unpleasant surprise that made him quickly jump out of the bed. It was much humorous seeing the prank entirely! Both of them had a good laugh that they almost didn't hear other neighbours around yelling "Quiet!"

It was late at evening and Michael decided to go home. Woody escorted him to the main door. They said bye to each other and at last Woody was done with this day. Now he got much more time to rest than before thanks to the moved schedule. It might give him more time to think of better pranks for his evil neighbour. After all, he deserves "better"...


	22. Chamomile tea

Blue Highway - a neighbourhood with usually nice weather and peaceful looking houses. It could be the most wonderful neighbourhood around, if only it wasn't for the one grumpy, greedy and overall nasty neighbour called Roger Rottweiler. This morning he was yelling a lot and his dog Mort was also barking in his house. What kind of ruckus could he be doing there? Nobody knew. Thanks to that noise Woody didn't end up with a good enough sleep yet again. Once that he realized that nothing could be done about that, he decided to wash himself, dress up and go outside. He was about to clean his windows while taking some fresh air. While doing the chore he heard the easily recognizable voice:

"Enjoying the polishing?"

It was of course Roger Rottweiler. Woody had no taste to talk to him at this point. Could there ever be a positive outcome of this conversation? Of course not. So he thought that the best choice was to ignore the neighbour. Roger had itchy tongue yet again and started mocking him:

"I think you need to polish your ears as well, you're deaf!"

Woody lost his patience. He immediately turned his head to him and asked with annoyed voice:

"Okay, what is your problem, Rottweiler?"

"You'll obviously never have the cleanest windows in the neighbourhood!"

'Sure, because you have cleaner windows than me! You sure clean them with your spits.' thought to himself the young man who didn't take Rottweiler's words seriously.

Then he thought he could mock him back by saying something harmless. So he came closer and calmly replied:

"Why, thank you for your friendly reminder. I have no plans of having the cleanest windows, not even in the whole world."

Roger got surprised by that. He wanted his short neighbour to suffer! But then he smiled sarcastically again and pointed at Woody's sweater:

"Hey, you've got something there..." Roger pointed at Woody's sweater.

He had managed to fool the young man into looking down at his shirt.

"Boing! Hahahah!" not wasting a second, the lout flicked his nose.

One of the oldest tricks in the book yet the prankster himself fell for it... by Rottweiler no less. Poor Woody rubbed his nose while looking annoyed at his neighbour. He only remarked to Roger:

"I would insult you, but nature already does a better job at that than me. "

"Why you little-! What do you mean?! How can nature insult me?! Stop pretending to be a genius! I will help you at keeping your head cool and empty!" the old oaf was so mad, he was about to choke him.

"Eeeh, watch out! I'll scream and Olga will come to see what's going on." Woody feeling scared told him that.

The old lout quickly changed his mind once he heard about Olga from him.

"What? Scream? What for? I didn't want to hurt you. Are you nuts? You're just a weak shorty." he said while looking like he did nothing wrong.

However Woody didn't buy it at all, his expression was between annoyed and suspicious. It was completely understandable, because on top of everything his obnoxious neighbour was also a hypocrite. The fatso went back inside his house leaving Woody alone once again. He stood on one place for a while, then a thought came to his mind:

'I wonder what is Shelly doing today.' so he decided to visit her.

Shelly was painting a picture in her living room. Around she had other pictures that she had done. For now her brush in hand moved on the canvas so gently in such way like calm waves on the ocean. She must have been drawing something kind to her heart, because her expression looked lovingly. However, that was interrupted by the doorbell. She went to open the main door, and it was Woody.

"Hello, Shelly." he greeted her with a smile.

"Oh! Hello, Woody. Come in." she somewhat didn't expect him, but invited him inside.

He looked around out of curiosity. Some of the paintings were familiar but others were supposedly recently done. The room seemed slightly messy, but it didn't bother him especially because it was to be expected since sometimes there's a lot of painting going on. Shelly just now realized something important and she quickly took the painting from the easel so she could place it somewhere else.

"You're painting something?" he asked.

"Yes..." she replied quietly while blushing "However it's not finished."

"I see." she then went somewhere else to hide the painting and eventually she came back.

"I wondered what are you doing today. Is it just painting?" asked Woody.

"Actually, my mother and cousin are going to visit me. I still need to prepare some refreshments for them." answered Shelly with a kind of timid stance.

"I can help you." suddenly offered Woody with a smile on his face.

"Oh, thank you." Shelly was pleased and led her friend to the kitchen.

Woody got the kettle, poured some water and turned the stove on where he then put the kettle on. He waited until the water started to boil a little. He waited till the tea steeped and then he poured it into two cups. He stirred the contents of one of the cups while Shelly was preparing cupcakes near him. The tranquil smell of the chamomile tea lingered in the air and wafted up to his nose.

"Mmm, the tea has nice aroma." he smiled as he took in the smell.

For some strange reason it reminded him of Shelly. Woody could not help but think about those beautiful brown eyes. Every time he closed his eyes he saw that pretty shy face and that sweet timid smile. He didn't even realize she agreed to his statement. Once he needed some sugar for the tea, he reached for the spoon that was in the sugar bowl nearby. As soon as he did that, Shelly was also reaching for it. Because of that, he accidentally held her hand again. They were both shocked at this happening and their faces became redder than beet. Even Woody's heartbeat was faster than usual. That lasted for about a while until he finally let go. He then awkwardly laughed:

"You can have the sugar." After the young man left the kitchen, he felt incredibly embarrassed from what happened and thought:

'What was I thinking there?'

While he was walking, he noticed something strange on his rear. When he looked at it, he saw there was an arrow with its head shaped like a heart. He looked around to see the source of that - at the window there was his angelic-self playing cupid. His angelic-self was shocked that he got spotted while the real Woody went to the window with an angry expression as if somebody ate his favourite dessert.

"No, listen to me, Woody!" said the angel to him "I only..."

Unfortunately for him, real Woody irritably shut the window at his fantasy-self.

'I never thought I would end up daydreaming like that!' he thought while still looking outside.

After short thinking he noticed his infamous neighbour doing something at the balcony. He was assembling something. After closer observation it looked like a grill.

"Woody?" suddenly Shelly came from kitchen with unsure voice "Is anything wrong?"

"Ah, no, everything's fine." replied the young man "When does your family arrive?"

"Quite soon..."

"Then I might as well leave. Have a nice day!"

He then left Shelly's house waving her while she also waved him back.

* * *

They started preparing the cameras, everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Even Joe approached Woody who was just observing their preparation and wasn't tough on anyone.

"Today it might be a great day." said the director to his host.

"Yeah, I saw Rottweiler preparing something to eat. His feast is going to be ruined by nasty pranks!"

"Sure, that as well." he agreed to the prankster's words in a kind of suspicious way, as if he was hiding something. Nick suddenly asked:

"Hey, Woody! Did you know we are going to-" his mouth was immediately covered by Markus. Woody got confused.

"What did he want to say?"

Joe tried to look like he has no idea, yet he pushed Woody to the main door.

"Nothing! Completely nothing! Now go, the fat meatball is prepared to be mocked by you."

The prankster had no other choice but to leave his house. After closing the door he looked around... and put his ear on the door. Nothing could be heard from inside his house, as if everyone was just a hard rock. It took Woody a minute to realise that his director was peeking through the window, presumable expecting him to leave.

'Okay, Joe. You win.' thought Woody 'But you better have a good explanation after I am done! This won't go overlooked.'


	23. Barbecue time

The house of Roger Rottweiler - ugly and unpleasant just as he is. Yet that was where Woody was guardedly approaching again, because his next-door neighbour is the scum of the neighbourhood who needed to be punished. It was a good thing that Woody had quite a lot of time to prepare himself for today. So as soundlessly as possible he entered. Once inside, he gestured to the audience and then sneaked while passing sleeping Mort to look around. Near him there was an old slipper which had chewing and bite marks. No other than the dog had done that, so it was simply to be expected. Other than that, there wasn't anything else significant, that is until he saw the cage where the little adorable piglet was from the previous episode. However, the piggy itself wasn't in there. Did Roger actually decided to free the poor animal? That was highly unlikely.

'I wonder what happened to the poor little piggy?' the prankster thought to himself.

He somehow felt like he was going to find out the answer of that question soon. The prankster decided to check the kitchen for anything helpful. Before entering it, he made sure if it was safe by peeking through the keyhole as usual. Inside the room, the most noticeable thing that caught his eye was a bowl of chopped up raw meat... possibly pork meat, which only meant one thing - that **was** piggy. It was quite an unfortunate sight for Woody... He felt a pang of sorrow from losing a friend... but at the same time knew that he should have expected that from Roger to do that. The old oaf most likely had always saw the piglet as food and nothing else. Well... Woody had a great idea for a prank, but at the same time still had some sad thoughts on his mind because of that. He got out his mobile phone and dialed a number of a pizza delivery service. While waiting for anyone to answer, the young man prepared himself to attempt imitating Roger's rough voice.

"Hello, 'Piekos Pizza' place." spoke the person who picked up "May we take your order?"

"This is Rottweiler, I would like to order a vegetable pizza. Make sure it has no meat whatsoever and I want to see there a lot of vegetables. And don't bother putting cheese on it either!"

"Alright, we'll just need your address so we can bring the pizza to you."

The prankster already knew his neighbour's address so he said it.

"Thank you. We'll be there after a few minutes with your order."

After hanging up, Woody continued exploring around the room without lingering any longer. He first looked inside the trash bin; it was almost empty, except for a banana peel. Either way, disgusting or not, Woody still considered taking it since it could be used for later. He then checked the refrigerator in which he found only a bottle of somewhat aged vinegar and a rotten egg. He wasn't sure what to do with those for now.

Whereas the fat lout was going upstairs through the living room while carrying a bag of coals. Chili was slightly startled by that, but his owner just ignored it and kept walking. When Woody heard him going upstairs, he went downstairs to the hall. There he tiptoed while passing the sleeping dog again so he could to pick up the old chewed shoe, then he sneaked to the bathroom. Searching around in there, the prankster found a small bottle of growth liquid from the medicine cabinet. The bottle had a text on the label that was so smudged, it could not be read at all. He grabbed that from there, and left the room. Next Woody quietly walked to the chest of drawers. After rummaging it, he came across a small bottle of rubbing alcohol which had a label which said "easily flammable", and he moved on back to the kitchen. There he got an idea after seeing the bowl of meat again. So he placed the old slipper on the rest of the pork meat pile.

'I wonder if Rottweiler will notice the difference. The greedy guts that he is...' the young man thought while trying to hold his chuckling.

Afterwards, he headed to the bedroom, but of course sleeping Chili was there, which was why he tiptoed while passing the parrot. When he got to the bedroom, he began glancing around. There wasn't anything noticeable, except for a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall. However that wasn't the only thing, because Woody also saw Roger was nearly finished barbecuing a steak on his grill. Feeling panicked, Woody hid himself under the bed. When Roger was done, he put the grilled steak on a plate he brought with himself, then sprayed the carnivorous plant with water to keep the leaves moist. Afterwards, he took the plate and left the bedroom.

The prankster decided to distract him for a bit. Before entering the living room, he peeked through the keyhole to see if it was safe. Good thing there was only Chili for now. The prankster quickly but carefully dropped the banana peel on the floor and then just as guardedly returned to the bedroom. Since it was safe to look around the balcony, he decided to go there. There were the things that he previously glanced over, but didn't had the chance to look at them closely - the barbecue grill, the carnivorous plant and the spray bottle. Woody got another inspiration for a trick after looking at the plant. He gently opened the spray bottle and poured the contents of the growth liquid.

'This will help the plant grow big and strong!' he thought while grinning mischievously.

Meanwhile, Roger was carrying the pack of beer. But at some point when he was at the living room, he suddenly tripped like a walrus. Only two of the beer bottles broke, while the rest of the pack was heavy like a concrete block to him. It was surely enough for him to throw an angry fit, he even also felt like his back hurt from the fall. At the same time when Woody heard all of that, he went straight to hiding under the bed. After the fat lout recollected himself a little, he picked up the beer pack and headed to the balcony again. That was only to place it on the floor, then he went back to the kitchen. The lout was gone only for now, so Woody got out from his safe spot and returned to the balcony. He remembered the label on the rubbing alcohol, and surely his neighbour will use the beer for barbecuing for later. So the young man opened each bottle carefully enough to not spill too much from them, in which he gently poured the rubbing alcohol into each beer bottle - that way whatever Roger picks, it certainly won't be wrong. Then just to be safe, the prankster yet again went to slid himself under the bed.

At the same time, the old oaf was going to the balcony and he was carrying a plate with an odd-looking "steak". When he got there, again he was emptying the ashes and cleaned the grill before starting with the barbecue. That suddenly made Woody realize what will happen, which was why he had to mess with the fire extinguisher somehow. The good thing was that he only had to tie its hose into a knot with his bare hands - he did that into a nice bow. After that quick prank, he just as fast moved on to the kitchen. The barbecue was going well for Roger until he wanted to pour what he thought was his beer. Big mistake! The grill suddenly started burning! Scared out of his mind, Roger straightaway ran to get his fire extinguisher. Of course he immediately returned to put out the flames. However because of the knotted hose, the extinguisher sprayed its chemicals right into his face. The fat lout now partially resembled like a snowman. He was shaken and perplexed at first, until those feelings faded and simply wiped his face, then tried to loosen the knot. It took him about a half a minute to manage to untie it. After he eventually put out the flames, he growled and screamed like a demonic rhino. Well, it was obvious that he didn't liked the "gift".

Whereas Woody was in the kitchen while his neighbour's yelling reached to his ears.

"Keep doing that, Rottweiler. You'll make everyone happy." he commented under his breath while taking the rotten egg and bottle of vinegar from the fridge.

The young man was planning to go to the previous room again. Although he didn't went there yet, because he was expecting him to be there. So Woody waited patiently for now. In the meantime, Roger settled down a bit and placed the somehow grilled "steak" on the plate then walked with it to the living room where the fork, knife, a bottle of wine and an empty wine glass where set on the table. He sat down at the table and was prepared to eat the "meat", but that was exactly when the main door rang. Grumbling something to himself, he went to open it.

"Hello, Mr. Rottweiler. Here's your pizza delivery." it was the person with the unexpected pizza order.

'I don't remember ordering anything, but I'll still see if it's good.' the loafer thought to himself with confused expression while taking the carton box.

If it's pizza then he won't refuse it... or would he? His expression quickly changed to horrified once he opened the box. The pizza had no cheese and had tomato sauce instead. It also had broccoli, cucumber, olives, and other pieces of vegetables. Vegan pizza was one of Roger's worst nightmares!

"I didn't order this disgusting healthy junk!" he scolded loudly "First, the Hawaiians! Now **you** ruined pizza for me! Thanks for nothing, chump!"

While the old oaf was scolding the delivery guy, Woody now had the opportunity to exit the kitchen and carefully search the living room. Luckily, Chili was sleeping but sneaking was still obviously needed. The prankster got a spark of inspiration for pulling some tricks here. However when he was moving the chair a little for his deed, Chili suddenly woke up and loudly squawked:

"Funny! Raaa!"

"Silence, Chili." Woody tried to shush the bird.

"Gaaah!" instead it kept continuing screeching.

Woody had to do whatever needed quick, so he placed the egg on the chair.

'Well, looks like somebody will be finally "hatching" the egg.' he thought while chuckling quietly.

Next he replaced the wine bottle with the one with vinegar. Surely the vinegar can only improve the taste of the wine. Just when he was leaving the living room with the wine bottle, Chili startled him by screeched again this time louder:

"Gaaah!"

"Aah! Take it easy!" and knowing who he was expecting after those sounds, he left the room quicker in a panic by returning to the kitchen.

That was exactly when Roger shoved the carton box with the pizza back onto the poor delivery guy and then slammed the door in front of his face. The old oaf was stomping back straight to the living room while still angrily growling. Then as soon as he sat down at the table again, a cracking sound could be heard. Not only that, but Roger felt it on his rear as well so he stood up to check the source. It turned out to be the egg. It was not only "hatched" but it was an omelet as well. That made him storm out of the room to change into some clean trousers, and they were only a slightly different pair from the last. Afterwards, the old oaf returned to the table and finally began greedily feeding himself with the "meat" like the glutton he was. Only after some bites, he not just thought it tasted weird but he also nearly choked on it like a dog. Roger managed to spit the bits from what it actually was his own old slipper. Now he was as mad as a provoked wasp, that it took him slightly longer than usual to recollect himself. The glutton thought that a gulp of wine would completely calm him down... if it was actually wine. When he gulped down about half of the glass of vinegar, he almost choked again. He was now madder than a three-legged dog trying to bury bones on a icy frozen ground.

Perhaps to relieve his stress he thought about watering his new potted carnivorous plant. So he went to get the spray bottle from the balcony. He believed that he was calming down. Nevertheless a little after he thoroughly sprayed it... the plant almost instantly grew before his eyes. It was frightening and more ravenous than just snapping at a few flies around. The carnivorous plant was about to bite Roger. But because how much stronger the big ugly bear was, he took down the plant with only one single punch and it was enough for it to even get killed by him. After that, Roger roared and snarled more than a lion with a toothache. It seemed clear that it would take him much longer for his rage and sadness to fade out. While the glutton was raging, Woody left the kitchen then headed to the main door. He finally exited the ugly unpleasant house for today.


	24. Festival

At home Joe was awaiting Woody while others were packing up. Woody immediately asked:

"Okay, Joe. What was that rush about? Why did you want me to go play pranks as quickly as possible?"

"Listen, I didn't want to stress you during the shooting," started explaining Joe. "but today a movie festival takes place in Vienna. We as a whole studio got invited for it."

"Whole studio? Does it include... me?" asked Woody precariously.

"Of course you as well! You're the host of the show! Without you it would never work!" said Joe.

The prankster still seemed rather unsure about this whole situation.

"Aaand... what exactly is that festival about? Do I have to do something there?"

The director looked at him with no clue of what to say. Kelsie who was listening to whole conversation said to the director:

"He's never been to a movie festival."

"I know, I know..."

He stayed quiet for a while, thinking of how to explain the mentioned event so even an ordinary guy could understand.

"Basically on the festival different people and groups get awards for their accomplishments."

Woody was listening the whole time. His small worries quickly vanished once Joe mentioned this:

"WE can be one of those."

"That sounds amazing! I mean... I could still work with you even without any award given. But if by any chance we get one, that clearly means Rottweiler is seen as a big doofus in the whole TV!"

"Exactly! It would be a shame if you missed that kind of opportunity live! So what do you say? Shall you come with us?" asked pleased Joe.

"Sure!" happily agreed Woody. "When do we go there?"

"The festival starts at evening, till then we have time for a lunch break."

"Say, Woody, is that pizza restaurant you called to great? Do they have good pizza?" questioned Michael who remembered the phone prank from the beginning of episode.

Woody answered:

"Umm... It's hard to say. I called there only once when I realised I had no goods and didn't want to bother any of the neighbours. But if they're able to make a great vegetarian pizza, I think they can please you, too."

The crew then decided to visit the restaurant with the agreement of the director. Joe promised Woody to pick him up later, as the young man wanted to enjoy his hand-made lunch. He peeked through window here and there to see what was going on outside. Shelly surely had visitors in her house and Rottweiler... maybe already lost taste for steaks after tasting a special one from Woody. Three hours passed by and the prankster received a message from the crew. It was time to leave.

A white bland van stopped in front of the blue house. It was most likely Joe and his crew. Without any hesitation Woody approached the van. On the front seats he could see Nick with smoking Markus as a driver.

"Get in from the back door, Woody!" said Nick.

He went there and the door was opened by Joe who was sitting there.

"Well, come then."

Woody took his hand and was seated between him and Michael. Finally he saw the rest of the group sitting there as well. The van drove off leaving the neighbourhood once again. Throughout the trip it felt like the van was driving through small rocks as almost everyone was slightly hopping on one place. Since Woody was the lightest out of all in the group, he ended up jumping from his place the most, to the point when it looked like he was about to fly.

"We don't have any seatbelts..." said worried Michael.

"Don't worry, no injuries happened here while crashing or sudden stops." assured Joe which made Woody confused of whether to be scared or not.

"He is not joking." said Kelsie, the one who you can definitely trust.

The prankster was finally sure about this van's unusual safety. Suddenly Nick spoke up:

"How about some catchy music while we're going, eh?"

He turned on the CD player and the song played with lyrics:

 _"I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling_

 _Gotta make you understand_

 _Never gonna give you up_

 _Never gonna let you down_

 _Never gonna run around and desert you..."_

"NICK!" Markus and Kelsie angrily shouted after they recognized the song. The CD player was immediately turned off.

"You pick that one song again and I'll throw you out of the van!" threatened Markus with his fist. Woody watched this comical scene with others.

"Seems like that song is a good repellent against Markus and Kelsie." he said to his director. He only replied while facepalming:

"None of us like that song."

After an hour and half later they arrived at a parking lot next to a huge building. Outside there were a lot of people going into the building. Woody stayed as close to the crew as he could so he wouldn't get lost in this huge mess. He already knew he wouldn't be able to navigate through the building all alone. It was huge and with so many corridors it resembled a maze. They seemed to get into the main room where the whole festival should take place. They all took seats next to each other and waited for the whole thing to start. Woody had a strange feeling this whole time. The enormous place full of people from different parts of the state, perhaps very popular. And now here came an ordinary man from a very simple family! He didn't have doubts... but a strange prediction, stranger than himself.

"Do you feel uncomfortable?" asked Kelsie sitting next to him.

Woody got shocked and tried to stay calm.

"I-uh-not really! Actually... I'm not sure. I think you know how it feels when you take part in this kind of festival."

"Yeah, I do." smiled Kelsie which made Woody relieved. "I'm also at this kind of festival for the first time, so I know how it feels."

"Really? I wouldn't expect that! You look so calm." this surprised the young man, the woman only replied:

"You haven't seen the inside of me."

Finally the festival started. Two narrators came on stage and introduced the whole festival with a small sense of humour. It wasn't anything special for Woody. His vision of good humour was making fun of bad people... and cowboyish stuff. Nevertheless, after each short sketch they introduced two or three categories of different genre that got nominated like action movie, comedy and so on...

"Next we have got nominees for best reality TV show. Now this is a strange but unique category. These nominees are the rare cases of very impressive "realities". Nominee number one: 'Neighbours from Hell',..."

'Oh my gosh, here it comes...' thought Woody while trying not to get too excited.

He looked at Joe who seemed calm like Kelsie. He smiled, like he was going to say his host: "We can do this."

Finally the narrator introduced all nominees. There were just four of them.

Now which of them got the award of the best reality TV show?

The tension was high...

And it was...

'Neighbours from Hell'!

This made Woody jump out of his seat and shout "Ya-hoo!" very loud. He was that excited. Joe then stood up and told his host to come on the stage with him to receive the award. He naturally followed him. On the way there everyone clapped and the young man noticed few surprised faces from the seats. On the stage Joe was given a medium large golden trophy. Woody was proudly standing next to him as he knew he wasn't dragged there without a purpose. The narrator then offered a microphone he was holding which Joe took and spoke up:

"I really appreciate this award as much as my workers. They're actually more valuable because without them we wouldn't get this special recognition. However, there's one person I have to specially thank to for all this effort... That person is this guy next to me, Woody Trickster. He is the number one reason why this show exists."

He then handed the microphone over to his host who gladly took it and faced the audience. He then said:

"I first have to thank Joe Deen for accepting me in his crew. I also want to thank my parents who might be watching right now. At last but not least I have to thank all my fans and their letters."

After that the two returned to their seats where the rest of the crew were high-fiving between each other. The next half hour flew by without anything new or unusual.

* * *

Back at JoWood studio - a big party was going on. Nick pulled out a CD player and let it play random songs. Not that annoying one by any chance. Markus opened at least two kinds of wine and began giving them to each member... or almost each. No matter how many times he offered Woody some of both kinds, he only said: "No, thank you. I don't drink." Instead he had some glass of orange juice. Nevertheless he enjoyed the party. At first everyone tried to dance to the music. Nobody minded each other's poor or even goofy dancing moves. They all had fun. Then after about an hour they finally quitted with crazy show and just talked. Woody and Joe stood next to one of few desks where each one had some drink. Markus approached them offering some wine in a bottle. Joe accepted with no problem.

"Hey, Woody. Want some?" asked Markus.

"Eeeh, nonono! I don't drink." was Woody's answer.

"Fine." he said and went on to ask others.

"One gulp doesn't kill." said the director who gaily smiled at his host. The host responded with:

"I know that red wine is good for heart and vessels, but I never found it tasty."

"Then have it your way." Joe then took another slurp of the wine. He then continued:

"No coffee, no wine, and what about beer? That's a stupid question isn't it?"

"Not beer either..." answered confused Woody.

Joe seemed kind of strange to him, as if he was too positive.

'Could it be he is already drunk? I wouldn't say he is completely...' he thought to himself. He tried to take advantage of that and asked:

"Say, Joe, were there some of your old projects that you really liked?"

"Old projects...?" started Joe "Those feel like artifacts from Antique to me... Some that I liked? Maybe one that was a detective series named 'Matthias The Private Eye'."

"Yeah, and what was the name of the movie where a white lady asked for the head of a headless horseman?" Woody questioned then while grinning from excitement.

"White lady and headless horseman... Oh yeah, that movie with flaws... It was called..." the director stopped.

He then immediately looked at Woody suspiciously. Once he became angrier, the young man knew he was spotted! Woody couldn't help but to cover his much bigger grin.

"You think you can fool me while being slightly out of my mind?!"

"Well, I thought you already **lost your head.** " said to himself Woody trying not to say it too loud in front of his director. He even started slightly laughing.

"I'll make sure to ask about your biggest secret once I manage to make you a little dreaming smiley!" said slightly angry Joe. He then added: "Heh, dreaming smiley, what have I come up with?"

"Ha, I don't think you can even guess my biggest secret. That is if I have one." smiled Woody.

"I'm pretty sure you have. Judging by your look it might have something to do with your nose."

"My nose?"

"Yeah! You must lie to someone recently."

This statement set Woody off guard, but then he quickly came up with a suitable explanation.

"Maybe I lie to Rottweiler a lot."

"You lie to a dog? What an interesting hobby."

"Yeah, a dog that drinks beer and fattens up with junk food."

Woody then checked the time on his phone and noticed that it was already twenty minutes before midnight. He got unpleasantly surprised and started dialing number for taxi while saying:

"I would like to go home already."

Suddenly Joe stopped him from dialing.

"Don't call a taxi, you silly. Why would you pay for something as simple as a ride home? You're a star now."

He then turned to other members of the crew.

"Hey, guys! Who hasn't drunk yet?"

Nick and Kelsie looked at him with blank expressions. Nick only replied:

"Sorry, we already have."

Joe then asked:

"What about Michael?"

Just at that moment Markus was pouring to his glass. Sadly his answer wasn't satisfying:

"Oops! Sorry, Joe."

This led the director to lose his temper and say out louder:

"Really?! There's no one who hasn't touched alcohol this night?!"

Finally he noticed one of the twins sitting near a table raising his left hand. The other one was sleeping with the head on the table, presumably already fallen for the alcohol.

"Boris? Great!"

Joe was glad about this. Woody on the other hand wasn't.

"Really, Joe? You're gonna sacrifice your cameramen just for few cents?" he asked with irritated expression.

"Cities are dangerous. It's better to rely on yourself and your friends." said Joe while patting his pal on back. "At least you'll have a safer ride home. Now have a good night."

Boris stood up and tried to carry his brother out of the workplace. Woody attempted to help him in spite of being short and not that strong to carry a tall adult. Once they got out and to the car, sleeping Thomas was seated on the back. Woody thought it would be better for him to sit in the front rather than next to a drunk person, even if it was still his friend.

'It shouldn't be that bad at the traffic. It's night after all.' he thought to himself.

And he was right. It was indeed quiet at the streets of Vienna. They rarely came across another car. With the combination of the dark, few lights around and peaceful car engine sounds Woody was getting a bit sleepy. He tried to stay awake though. Luckily he got faster home than last time when Markus took him there. After getting off the car he said to Boris:

"Thanks for the ride."

Boris only waved his hand with a confident smile saying 'No problem'

Finally he drove off leaving Woody alone. Our great prankster was sure in need of a good sleep after such a busy day. With receiving such recognition on TV he might have much bigger inspiration for pranks. What kind of pranks? Well, whatever opportunity will Rottweiler and his house offer. There is always time to find good material for jokes.


	25. Rainy day

Early morning in the city of Vienna, where it wasn't that noisy and in fact it was peaceful for such a busy place. There was also the building of JoWood Studio. It was almost empty, except that in the main office was the editor Kelsie doing one of her favourite hobbies - sketching. She was now sketching cats. Once she noticed the door opening, she quickly hid the paper into her case. A manager called Maurice Paek entered the room.

"Kelsie? You're here early again?" Maurice asked slightly surprised.

"Good morning." Kelsie greeted.

"Good morning. Well?" he greeted back while expecting an answer to his question.

"Well, sometimes Joe comes early as well and then we consult some things about our show..." she explained.

"Yeah, yeah. I congratulate you for the award." he smiled slightly while he sounded... perhaps somewhat insincere.

"Thank you."

"I personally think you can be a good enjoyable actress." the manager added.

Kelsie felt confused and sort of awkward after hearing that from him. Fortunately enough, director Joe entered the office and he was surprised to see the manager.

"Mr. Paek! What are you doing here?" asked Joe while getting a handshake from him.

"I came to congratulate you for the award." he replied.

"I appreciate it."

"And when I can see that... Woodrow... The short host?" Maurice asked while trying to remember Woody, especially since he had never met him in person.

"He doesn't come here that often." the director responded.

"I see... Then I wish you good luck in the further episodes." Maurice said to him.

Joe then thanked him. Afterwards, the manager Maurice left the office leaving both Joe and Kelsie alone. The editor was even more suspicious towards the manager so now it was a good time to speak from her mind:

"I think Mr. Paek doesn't see Woody as a good host. He doesn't know his name and even told me that I can become an actress."

"... As long as he keeps it to himself, I'm okay with it." the director only shrugged.

Joe knew basically much more about the manager than her, while Kelsie was on Woody's side.

"I apologize for the rudeness, but I think he's a coward for not saying his opinion out loud. I even think he might plan something nasty." she remarked firmly.

"He would do it now, we wouldn't be here. Besides, he gets something for our cooperation too. So he has got a reason to work with us." he stated.

They both stopped the conversation for a moment, mostly to notice the weather outside - it was raining quite heavily.

"Well, look at that rain." the director pointed out.

"Pretty terrible if you ask me." said the editor.

Joe hid the paper he was carrying in one of the desks, presumably scripts and other projects.

"We can't work with a weather like that." Kelsie uttered with a disappointed look on her face.

"And why not?" he asked.

"The footage will look awful with that rain." she answered.

"It won't be even that visible as the focused action in the house. It will be all okay." Joe assured her about that.

"Besides, what can that fat bulldog do in a day like this" she questioned rhetorically "Sit on the sofa and watch TV."

"You never know. Of course Woody will come up with some unique ways of pranking him. We both know he's good at it." he explained with a smile, and she agreed about that.

Again, there was a pause. Joe seemed to have found something interesting, so he approached Kelsie and pulled out her sketches that she hid.

"...Cats?" he asked somewhat confused.

Kelsie tried her hardest not to smile.

"Looks good. Almost professional." the director commented on them.

"Thanks." she ended up grinning at the compliment.

"Why didn't you go for comic illustrator?" he was curious.

"...I tried. However they required drawing women... with revealed basketballs... and I'm not interested in that." the editor explained while feeling somewhat disgusted at the thought.

"Oh... They do that?" surprised Joe asked.

"They think they can copy Japanese manga. Trust me, it's almost pointless reading most of them. They pretty much have no story!" she remarked.

"I have doubts it will ever catch on here. Later they will beg for your realistic cats." he said.

"They've made a mistake. I'm happy here."

* * *

Meanwhile the neighbourhood Blue Highway was empty on the outside. Rain fell in crazy chaotic drops, the gusting wind carrying them in wild vortices one moment and in diagonal sheets immediately after. Those drops were bigger than prairie hailstones and coming down just as hard. Woody was in his own home watching the raindrops through a window. He was thinking to himself:

'Well, I'm even more popular than before since I got the award. The audience now definitely know what a nasty pig Rottweiler is. With that said... I wonder what my parents think about this. Especially mother... Sure, she wanted me to become a teacher. But maybe a prankster wasn't a bad choice after all. I'm pretty sure she is partially proud of me.'

Then he decided to tidy up his house. He got nothing else to do. Earlier that day he saw Shelly painting something inside. He didn't want to bother her, after all she might be fully concentrated. From time to time he peeked into his neighbour's house through one of the windows. The fatso was in different room each time he looked, so it was hard to think of some pranks. Maybe already in the house there might come some ideas.

Finally it was time when Joe's crew arrived at Woody's house. Even if they came by the van, all of them were completely wet.

"Hello there." greeted Joe "How are you doing? Ready for the pranking?"

Woody answered:

"Yes, I am. Although it is quite rainy outside."

"No need to worry. We still can shoot the episode."

While others were taking off their jackets, Markus bursted out of rage once he realized something.

"Goddammit, my cigarettes are all wet!"

"We can let them dry on the radiator." said Nick who tried to sound humorous despite being scared of Markus' anger.

He only replied:

"That's pointless. They will taste like-"

"Eeh, calm down..." suddenly interrupted Kelsie. "No need for harsh words."

Markus then stayed silent still with furious expression.

"Anyway," continued Joe "our manager came to congratulate us including you. I told him that you don't visit our office that often, but I still felt like to tell you about this."

"Really? That's nice of him." said Woody having no idea who the manager really was.

Then one of the twins made some movements with right hand with pleased expression looking directly at Woody and Joe.

"What did he say?" asked curious Woody which to Joe explained:

"Thomas mentioned special video on our website that includes best scenes from the show. Most of them show the Rottweiler dog falling for your traps, but there are few scenes where you say some funny lines."

"Let me guess, it gets a lot of views, too." said the young prankster.

"It got shared on different sites as well!" was a surprise heard from Joe. After everyone got prepared he then proceeded with:

"Make sure you don't leave any traces when entering the house."

Woody replied with:

"I'll bring my small folding umbrella so I don't get wet."

And so it was just like that. Determined to make Rottweiler's day a nightmare he hurriedly but as quietly as possible went to the horrible house.


	26. Mother's arrival

**Author's note: This chapter's episode is entirely made-up with it's own pranks in it, except one of them is taken from another episode which is from the NGC/Xbox version. Hopefully you'll enjoy reading it as much as the other chapters!**

* * *

Despite the strong rain Woody made it to Roger's house with his umbrella, and luckily he was almost dry. Once inside, he went to hide his umbrella in the wardrobe. However, when he was about to gesture to the audience, he heard footsteps from the living room. So he quickly went to the kitchen. It was Roger himself who left the living room. The old oaf walked to the telephone and dialed a number, then he waited.

"Yeah, what?" there was a slightly annoyed voice on the phone.

"Hello, momma. I'm just calling you that I'll pick you up."

"Oh, hurry up then! I'm waiting!"

After that, his mother suddenly hung up. Roger then walked to the basement presumably to get something for protection from rain. The prankster was watching through the keyhole thinking of his first prank. Just when he left the kitchen, he noticed by the main door an umbrella which obviously belonged to the old oaf. Maybe if he had something to mess i tup with. The prankster checked the chest of drawers, where quickly he found a pair of scissors. He cut some holes in the umbrella, but he made sure that they were undistinguishable until use.

'As soon as Rottweiler goes out in the rain, he won't just be a bear - he'll be a drizzly bear!' he thought while hiding in the wardrobe and chuckling quietly.

Exactly after he hid himself there, Roger exited the basement carrying a pair of old Wellington boots. He took off his slippers then by standing on one foot and very clumsily he put on one of the boots that he almost fell down. He did it with the other one the same way. Afterwards Roger put on one of the old jackets from a nearby hanger and took the umbrella; he was fully unaware that there was something wrong with it. When Woody heard the door closing, he left the wardrobe and said not too loud:

"Have a nice shower, neighbour."

Meanwhile, the bear was on his way and at the same time opening the umbrella. He still didn't notice anything with it, that was until after walking for not too long. He realized the umbrella wasn't protecting him from the rain at all. Which was why he really became a drizzly bear! He was like a mad storm and threw away the useless umbrella. Then he hurried up without it. It was even worse for him as his jacket didn't have a hood to at least cover his bald head.

Back in the house, Woody just entered the living room. There his curious eyes noticed a new red armchair besides the usual one, which had a contraption in it... or rather the chair itself was the engine. He wasn't sure what it did so he decided to try it out a bit. After he pushed the button, the chair started to vibrate for around a minute. Now it was clear to him that it was really an unusual-looking massage armchair. How could he possibly turn this into a prank? Either way, the young man went to explore the rest of the house in the meantime. While looking around he realized that Chili was nowhere to be found, which was strange.

Woody went to check the bedroom, and unfortunately there wasn't anything useful. However when he listened carefully, he could faintly hear the raindrops on the roof which gave him a spark of inspiration for a prank. He still needed some tool for it. So for now he headed for the kitchen. Once there the first noticed a half of bread, a cup of sugar and a bottle of mineral water. He began searching in the refrigerator. There he found some stinky cheese that smelled worse than Roger's armpits. Because he himself didn't smell well and that was just not swell, with the cheese it could be more than Hell. Regardless of that he took it. Afterwards, he rummaged in some of the cupboards and came across a cup of salt. He put the sugar away and replaced it with the salt. After that, he grabbed a nearby kitchen knife, cut a few pieces from the stinky cheese and tried his best to hide the pieces in the bread. How would he spoil the mineral water though?

Woody picked up the bottle of mineral water which had a label that read "100% natural water".

'Natural, you say? I believe Rottweiler's idea of "natural" is something else.' he thought sort of disgusted.

He poured the bottle's content into the sink. He was about to fill it directly from the kitchen sink itself since the tap water was already disgusting enough, until he remembered something.

"No, I know of better natural water!"

Before leaving kitchen he looked around for some tools that would help him with his prank. After some searching he found a funnel and a ladle. So he took the objects and headed to the bathroom. The young man had an idea to use the toilet water from there. Yes, toilet water - now that was way worse! Which was why he put the funnel in the bottle, then by using the ladle he scooped the water from the toilet and transferred the liquid into it. He carried on like that until it was filled up almost to the top and turned the cap tightly. Afterwards, the prankster walked back to the kitchen and placed back the bottle where it belonged.

'Now Roger will flush from embarrassment after he drinks this!' he thought while smiling mischievously.

Thereafter, he went to explore the basement out of curiosity. There the very first thing that caught his eye was a lawn mower and even Woody could recognize that it was made by one famous racing car company. He got an idea when he remembered the massage armchair in the living room.

'Well, I think that armchair's engine is too weak, might as well switch it around with this powerful one.' he thought to himself.

The young man grabbed a screwdriver and wrench in his right hand, while in his left hand he took the lawn mower by its handle. But just when he was about to leave the basement, near the door he noticed a saw which could be helpful for another trick. He picked it up as well with his right hand, then he exited the room. He easily took everything to the living room. Once there, he began unscrewing and unbolting the places of the massage armchair's engine that was holding it. Then after removing the engine from the lawn mower, he set it in the chair and did his best to assemble it as tightly as he could.

"Okay! Now its perfectly possible to simulate real earthquakes!" he said with a chuckle.

He also decided that he may as well put the original armchair engine into the lawn mower. That took him another extra effort, especially since he was already kind of tired from doing it. Then again, the original engine had to be hidden somewhere. Thereafter Woody took the lawn mower itself back to basement. Afterwards, he headed straight to bedroom with a perfect plan he got earlier. Precisely at this time, Roger and his mother Georgina Rottweiler arrived. Woody heard their loud stomping which made him curious enough to look through the bedroom's door into living room. There he saw both of the Rottweiler giants.

'What a terrifying mother! She looks scarier than in the photo album!' in this case, curiosity killed the cat, because that got the prankster quite shocked from her appearance.

Meanwhile Roger picked up a nearby blanket and covered the massage armchair, then he let her sit on it. After she sat down, she noticed Woody's house through a window. She asked:

"And who lives in that poor-looking house?"

"Oh, there's just this one stupid short guy... what a smiley trashbag. He has ugly teeth and long nose."

'You're not any better... at all.' Woody rolled his eyes.

Roger continued on with complaining about him:

"He thinks he is smart, he always looks at me funny. Once he dared to throw a can on my yard. But then he screamed like a little girl when I warned him by just pointing with one finger."

'Really? Is that how you really feel about me?! Well, you're too stupid to ever realize that this "smiley trashbag" is giving you a bad time!' that made the prankster really mad, but of course he was still reasonable enough to stay quiet this whole time.

He started making small holes on the roof with the saw which he picked up earlier. In order to do so he stood on a nightstand to reach it. In the meantime, his neighbour was just going to the kitchen to get the refreshment he had prepared for his mother. He put a few spoons of "sugar" in the cup of tea and finally he brought it to living room along with the sandwich. As soon as Georgina took a bite from the sandwich, she spat it out immediately and instinctively gulped down half of the tea, also spitting it out, this time right into Roger's face by accident.

"They felt like literal garbage!" she growled madly. However, the sandwich had not fully ruined the day.

"Bring me some mineral water so I can wash those down, now!" she ordered him.

With the pain he had right now, the old oaf tried to rush to the kitchen to grab the "mineral water". Back in the living room he gave it to his mother. She gulped down part of the bottle's contents and again accidentally spat the liquid into Roger's face, except this time he tried to cover himself.

"How dare you?! Do you want me to get killed, you reptile!?"

The hag stood up in front of her son and slapped him in the face. Roger wailed like an overgrown baby and at the same time growled like a wild animal with a toothache. After a few minutes the hag only said:

"If you're done being a crybaby then get over here and turn on the thing!"

After his outbursts of emotions, he calmed down a little and turned on the massage armchair. Almost immediately, the chair vibrated more than a washing machine on full spin with a brick in it.

"Turn it off!" she screamed.

Roger in a panic attempted to do just that. Though instead of that, the engine became much faster. In fact, it was like a really strong earthquake! Eventually it stopped by itself because of overloading, but Georgina had still a shocked expression. When she recovered from that state, she grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and with full force she spanked him like a misbehaved child on the spot where there is never any sunlight. The couch potato lamented and yelled furiously as if he was almost a dinosaur.

At the same time, Woody was finished making holes in the ceiling. There were so many that the sound of drops got into ears of Georgina.

"Hey, what's that sound?" she questioned.

"What... are you talking about, momma?" her son asked.

"God, you're deafer than a dead rat. It comes from upstairs!"

As soon as Woody heard that, he went to slide under the bed. Roger walked to the bedroom to check the source of the sounds - it turned out that there were a multitude of raindrops falling from the roof. He remembered that there was one tool at the balcony that could fix the holes, so he went there. Woody got out of the safe spot to take the opportunity by locking the door which had a key in it. Of course, the deaf lout did not hear the locking sound. However, after he picked up what he needed, he tried to open the door but to no avail - it couldn't open. He even had attempt with more force by punching and kicking but still nothing.

Out of desperation of being stuck on the balcony, Roger called out for his mother as loud as possible. The prankster heard Georgina's footsteps. He considered hiding in the wardrobe instead of under the bed. The old hag arrived in the room and ran to the balcony... but she slipped on the water puddle. It was so slippery that she even crashed into the door! Georgina was lying near the balcony door while groaning from agony. There was enough time for Woody to quickly leave the wardrobe and the bedroom itself. From there he walked all the way to the main door. He took his folding umbrella from the wardrobe and eventually exited the house for today.

* * *

It was still raining crazily outside in Blue Highway. Woody quickly jumped over the hedge dividing Rottweiler's yard and his own one. Finally he was going to sit down and relax in his house after such tiring work. When he opened the door Joe immediately said:

"You've got some visitors."

To the young man's surprise those were his parents Daniel and Tamara. He then got hugged by his mother.

"Hello sweetheart! Our little shooting star!... Like in the sky, you know."

"Mom? Dad? What are you doing here?" asked confused Woody.

"Me and mom thought we could visit you." Daniel started explaining. "And... let's just say we didn't expect you'd be shooting an episode."

Tamara added to it:

"This kind gentleman showed us how your actions are recorded and this lady was nice enough to show where you were at the moment."

She pointed to Joe and Kelsie as she was talking about them. The director then ordered his crew to pack their cameras.

"I think it will be the best for us to go already. See you next time!" and he left with his crew.

Now it was just the Tricksters family in the house. The father approached his son saying:

"I wanted to give you something."

He handed him a small sack. It turned out to be the marbles that were promised at the last visit.

"So you found them at last!" smiled Woody.

"Yeah. It turned out we had them in my nightstand - the last place I would search for your stuff."

'Maybe dad wanted to play with them for the last time before moving away my toys. After all, he is partially a prankster with his comedies.' thought the young man to himself while checking the marbles in the sack. The mother asked a question:

"Our sweetheart, would you mind telling us how you felt in that house?" which to Woody replied like this:

"Sure! But first I have to wash my hands. So if you excuse me..."

He then went to bathroom. In the meantime Daniel told his wife:

"I believe he is tired from his work, we shouldn't ask that many questions."

"We still can ask about the girl he is friends with."

"Tammy..." he rolled his eyes at her with embarrassement. Typical mothers were always curious about their children and their lives.

During the conversation with all members present, Woody talked about his experience in Rottweiler's house. How almost everything had unpleasant smell, most corners were dirty and unpolished and even a bar of soap or washing powder didn't make things any cleaner. Of course he mentioned Rottweiler's unbelievable behaviour towards other people and even pets. Both parents were shocked just by comparing what they had seen on TV and what they just heard. They now knew who Rottweiler really was.

"I've never seen such disgusting and cruel man." said Daniel. "It shows that the world has some jerks who you can't get rid of. But at least this one gets what he deserves."

"I don't understand. What do you mean by 'he gets what he deserves?'" suddenly Tamara asked his husband "He still is rude, isn't he? How can this pranking teach him any lesson?"

Woody started thinking for a while. Yeah... Roger Rottweiler hadn't changed... no matter how many episodes he had made, he still had been the same just like at the beginning. He could drop the job of prankster, but the idea of himself doing nothing with it sounded wrong. He felt like he was doing the right thing, this got other neighbours laugh at the fat pig in secret. With a person who didn't have any manners, it was something unique. Not to mention other people outside of Blue Highway agree - 'Yes, this guy is a dork! He is silly!'

"Maybe he hasn't changed," started Woody, "but he sure will miss something that we have - respect from other people. Not even his mother is able to give him little of maternity love."

The parents, even the mother, acknowledged that. They saw the recent episode live after all. The mother then said:

"You'll always be our little shining sun bringing smile to everyone... even though you could really be an operator. You're really smart for that."

After that they decided to have dinner. Tamara prepared something easy from ingredients she could find. Finally it was time for parents to go. The parents called for themselves a taxi driver to pick them up. They had their last conversation near the main door.

"Thank you for visiting me." smiled Woody at his parents.

"Be careful next time..."

Tamara suddenly realized something.

"Oh my gosh, I forgot to ask you about that girl!"

Daniel only tried to hold her back as he stepped outside.

"You can ask about her other time. Have a nice rest of the day."

The mother hugged her son one more time before really leaving. The hug lasted for about a minute. Then they got into the taxi car that came. Woody only relaxed for the rest of the day on his couch inspecting the marbles he got.

"This is going to be a lot of fun." he said to himself smiling. "Just walking around, only to find himself slipping on these little mischiefs. Perhaps they could be used more than once just like my superglue!"

Who knows what the next episode might look like, but one thing will be certain - Woody will think of anything that will punish Rottweiler for his bad deeds. It wasn't any different with this episode, even if it was very rainy.


	27. Falling pots

Another two days passed after the last episode. The weather certainly got better, although the sun was still hiding behind the house. The morning for our prankster started with a warm shower. His mood was quite positive, so much he was singing for himself:

" _I am standing proudly today_

 _because I'm purely happy inside_

 _and it is spilling on my outside._

 _Suddenly I can feel the sunny rays_

 _even though it's cloudy today_

 _take the mind off the noisy sledgehammer_

 _of my freaky neighbour."_

He was definitely having a good time. That suddenly changed once he heard loud repeated knocking on door. Full of anger he turned off the shower and said out loud:

"Can't a normal person have one calm shower?!"

He put on himself a towel and his white T-shirt so he could go outside. He was indeed annoyed because he was just in the middle of washing his hair so it looked quite messy. Finally he opened the door only to see a delivery man.

"S-sorry for bo-bothering you in-in hygiene stuff..." said the delivery man with shaky voice.

"Quick, I don't feel like holding my towel for too long." demanded Woody with irritated expression.

"M-m-mr. Rottweiler?" started the delivery man. "The-the package arrival..." he then pointed on a big box behind him.

The young man only replied:

"Wrong house. Rottweiler lives next to me."

As soon as he said that, the shaky guy calmed down but he then turned out to be embarrassed by his mistake.

"Oh! I highly apologize! I was so nervous while searching the right house."

Woody then looked at the big box again. It was unusually large and that was supposed to go for Rottweiler? This only raised some questions.

"Excuse me," said Woody, "what is in that box if I may ask?"

"N2000..." the delivery man started explaining. "It's an exercise bike. Mr. Rottweiler has been lately ordering some equipment from our shop for 30 day testing."

'Did neighbour finally decide to do something with his ever growing paunch? Nice try, Rottweiler.' Woody was thinking to himself while the guy continued talking.

"I was warned by my collegues that he is quite aggressive."

The young man couldn't help but to feel slightly sorry for the guy. Sure, he entered the wrong house, but it wasn't his fault. It was sadly his job to deliver products to even malicious people like Rottweiler. He said:

"If I may advise you, leave the box in front of his door and leave as soon as possible."

The guy then started to shiver.

"B-b-b-but I-I-I n-need a sig-n-n-signature!"

Woody got irritated again and grabbed a paper he was holding the whole time along with a pen.

"I'll sign it under his name." he offered while quickly signing the paper as fast as he could.

"Oh, thank you, dear sir! You just spared my life!" the delivery guy thanked.

But as soon as he said it, Woody already slammed the door in front of him. He got what he needed, so it was back to the shower to finally wash his hair. The thought of Rottweiler purchasing some fitness equipment seemed not only strange, but also ridiculous. Having it for only 30 days... that certainly wasn't a gift for anyone. Was he really willing to actually move his body in order to lose some weight? It would be impressive, if the person wasn't a mean, jealous, greedy and downright disgusting pig known as Roger Rottweiler. He couldn't even show a bit of appreciation to all the delivery men who visited his house. After he finished washing himself, he thought of visiting his kind neighbour Shelly.

'I just hope I won't end up daydreaming like last time. I sure looked like a doofus when I ended up like that.' so he went to her house.

Shelly was putting her flower pots on shelves in her old cupboard with garden tools that was placed high. No matter how she tried, they were always about to fall. In the last moment she got them and put them back on the shelves further inside. When she heard a knocking on the door, she was shocked to realize the pots couldn't stay on one place.

"H-hold on!" she said as she quickly pushed the pots into the cupboard hoping they would stay there a little bit longer.

She quickly went to open the door. Woody was standing there prepared to greet her:

"Hello, Shel-"

"Hello! I-I-I must-!" and she immediately ran back to the cupboard where the pots were just about to fall again.

The young man was unusually surprised by this. When he went to check on his friend, he noticed that she couldn't hold on to the pots any longer. He quickly ran to her saying out loud:

"Careful!"

He tried to protect her from the falling pots by covering her with himself. As a result he ended up getting hit by some of them, but one in particular got stuck on his head. He now looked like an acorn with covered eyes and only showing nose and mouth. Both of the neighbours were on the ground with all the pots lying around them. Woody wanted to remove the pot from his head, but to his shock:

"Uh-oh! It's stuck!"

When his friend looked at him, she also got shocked. She saw him desperately trying to take off the pot by strong pulling but with no success. She calmed him down a bit by lightly patting his shoulder, then without saying anything she tried to help out. Gently but still carefully she moved the pot into different directions to see if it could get loose somewhere. After finding the right position she lifted it till she finally saw Woody's eyes again. Both got relieved that there was no need to call an ambulance. While adjusting his hair the young man happily said:

"Well, you grew a wonderful friendly flower."

The young lady couldn't help but to giggle at this sentence.

"I watered myself earlier in shower." he then added.

"Oh no... I'm sorry I ruined your hairstyle." the friend got a bit ashamed of herself.

"Nah, I bet other things will fall on my head. You certainly need a help with these pots."

Both of them stood up as the young man looked closely at the things in the closet. After a short thinking he suggested:

"Maybe if we put some of these tools into the pots, then everything would fit there without falling."

They tried that with small tools such as hand fork and dipper so the pots could be placed with the rest of tools. At last everything could be fit in the closet with some extra free space on the top shelf. Shelly was grateful to Woody and thus she thanked him for help. While looking at the small mess left from the accident, Woody noticed a thin red rope lying on the ground. He picked up to examine it. It turned out to be a very stretchy but strong rubber rope.

"This rope is very interesting." he said to her and she replied:

"I don't think I can use it."

"Could I use it?"

"Uhm... If you think you can..."

And so he hid the rubber rope into his pocket for a possible use during the today's episode of the show.

"So... how are you today?" he then asked.

The young lady got a little nervous after hearing that line. By looking at her eyes it seemed like she wanted to say something important, or at least that was what he thought. She then tried to speak up:

"I... I wanted to ask... if you like a certain colour."

Woody got confused a bit, but he still took the offer.

"Alright then. What colour is it then?"

Shelly then went to her living room where she usually keeps her painting tools. On a table she had different pictures of flowers and fruit. She picked one and showed it to her friend. It looked like an upside down photo of some blueberries forming a bunch of grapes.

"Hey, it looks nice! I like the blue color. This is one strange kind of grapes." said Woody.

Shelly giggled at his sentence again and she then replied.

"It is called Muscari. It is a flower that just looks like grapes."

He then realized that yes, it was indeed a flower in grass, not upside down grapes. They both laughed together at this silly thought. After that Woody looked at the time, he had to return home to prepare for the show. To act like nothing is happening he said:

"Well, I sure learn new things. I will go then. Have a nice day!"

"H-have a nice day as-as well." she sheepishly replied.

'Alright, she doesn't ask me why I have to go. I honestly feel bad for lying to her when she is fun to be around with.' he thought to himself while returning home.

Obviously he had a reason for doing all this. Then again, he would meet her again in his spare time.

* * *

Joe's crew finally arrived at Woody's house with the director being in very good mood. He didn't waste any time to get to the point:

"Hello there! Guess what we've got this time!" Woody tried to guess.

"Let me guess, another shared compilation of episodes? Or perhaps any new special letters?"

"It's this little thing..." Joe pulled out a camera from one of the crew's bags. A very simplistic camera with the size of a hand. It made the prankster really surprised.

"That's the smallest camera I've ever seen!" he said.

The director then started explaining:

"Last time you went into one room which we couldn't record from any window. You brought a lawn mower from there."

Woody was of course aware of the room. It was none other than the basement, which contained rather handy tools.

"It would be great if you put this camera there." Joe then continued. "It works on remote control so there's no need for cables. It has a large battery, so it should be able to stay on for very long time. From our testing, the footage may have lower frame rate than the main cameras, but it still works nonetheless."

The important thing was that it worked, Woody thought to himself and so he replied:

"I'll put the camera there and also 'help' my neighbour with exercising."

Nick found this news hilarious, just like other members. He joked a little:

"Exercising? That sounds really funny! What's next? Him joining a football team?"

Then Woody delivered his own joke:

"I think he would serve well as a football itself. A bit heavy but still round and sturdy."

The laugh of most of the members followed after this line. When they all calmed down, they prepared everything that was needed for shooting. Finally the host prepared himself to leave his house with the small camera he was given.

"Remember, hide it properly so it won't get found by that fat dog." Joe said before leaving.

"Don't worry, I will make sure of that."

With these words Woody went to visit Rottweiler's house. His exercising would surely get much more exciting.


	28. Fitness frenzy

The mischievous hero Woody was approaching the ugly house of his enemy Mr. Roger Rottweiler for yet another day full of pranks. Woody entered the hideous building cautiously and stealthily. As usual he did his cowboyish dance gesture to greet the audience. Before actual pranking he went to the basement to put the small camera somewhere so the room could be monitored. At first, he reckoned on putting it up in the shelves, but Roger would most likely notice it in case he was searching for something there. So that was out of the question. Then he intended on hiding it in the coal stove since it was most likely barely used. But then again, the audience probably wouldn't see the action very well. Woody reconsidered his choice again for about minute while observing the basement carefully, until he noticed one of the upper room corners that had some spider webs. Maybe that was the best place to hide it.

However, how would he reach it? Well, there was a ladder with one broken step, which would explain why Roger left it in the basement. Still,it was helpful enough for Woody so he used it to climb up to the corner. As planned, he placed the camera in the upper corner with the thick spider webs while trying to keep the lens not too revealed nor too covered. After that done, he climbed down and dragged back the ladder where it was. Only then he noticed an expander on the wall. Of course the neighbour would try anything to get rid of his ever-growing paunch. Not to mention he also noticed a big barbell. For now he decided to search through a workbench, where he came upon a strong spring and some pliers. With those useful-looking tools he exited the basement.

Next he explored the hall where he found a sports bag. It was most likely some other equipment he just purchased for one reason only. He rummaged through it and found some roller skates. He wondered if the neighbour would be even able to keep balance on these. Probably not. He left the roller skates behind from now. There was also a jumprope on the floor nearby. He already had an idea of simply tying it up to a knot.

'I guess my neighbour will have to jump a little higher now.' he thought while chuckling quietly, then headed to the living room's door.

He peeked through the keyhole just to be safe. In the room was an exercise bike sitting there. But more interestingly there was Roger as well... doing yoga and... surprisingly well at that too, even though he was stumbling around a little from time to time. Woody was thinking about the possibilities that could be done in that room. For now he went to the bathroom to look around. Once inside, he checked the medicine cabinet; he came across a small bottle of steroid pills.

'Steroids? He really expects to lose weight and gain muscles without thinking about the horrible side-effects? He may as well just sit around and be lazy as usual - that's less risky.'

Nevertheless he thought these could maybe come in handy at some point later. Woody then headed to the living room's door and checked through the keyhole. Luckily, the coast was clear so now he could examine the bike more closely. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't broken or worn out - it had to be very sturdy. A good idea for a prank came to his mind, but he decided to not execute it just yet. He left the pliers near the bike and headed towards bedroom. As soon as he got there, he heard some steps in the next room. So he quickly hid under the bed and watched the big fat bear leaving the bedroom. Once he was gone, he started exploring. He noticed a trampoline, which upon closer inspection, he noticed that the trampoline's little springs were badly worn out.

'And it's because of my neighbour's spare tire... although I think I know how this could be improved.'

With that in mind, he placed the big spring under the trampoline and adjusted it.

'That will put a spring in his step!' he thought while chuckling.

Thereafter, he decided to check the nightstand for anything else; inside it there was only a book that described 1001 knots. Surprising to find it there, but anything could be fun to use. He didn't go to the balcony, but it was enough for him to look through the window and he saw a strange saw on the table. He went there to pick it up and it turned out to be a special saw for metal. How lucky! He then decided to enter a room that he didn't think of going in at first. He thought it could be some storage or a useless room. Looking around he noticed a lot of things. A big fish aquarium, shelves with golden trophies and a table with a computer. It looked like a study. And near the computer he also noticed a cheap printer.

"So that's where he prints those dirty pictures and puts them in the bathroom!" said to himself Woody.

He approached the fish aquarium to inspect it. Knowing Roger well enough, Woody asked himself:

"I wonder whether my neighbour is planning on cooking these pets as well?"

He stood in place for a minute while trying to think of a prank that could be used on the fish. Exactly then he looked at the small fish food box and got an idea; he remembered that he still had the bottle of steroids. He poured some of the pills the box so it didn't overfill.

'I'm sure this will make his fish big, strong and with a healthy appetite!' he thought to himself.

As he looked around he also noticed... several heads of various animals hanging on the wall... definitely lifeless animals... Woody froze out of fear. He got more and more anxious just by recognising some of those animals. One of them being that one unfortunate piggy. Even Chili the parrot was the victim of this wall decoration!

'Ho-how could he-?! He-he was his own pet!'

This got him shiver like he was stuck in a cold fridge.

'C-could he do this to someone like m-me?!' he tried not to think of such possibility.

He quickly left the room to escape the fear and continue with his job. Meanwhile, Roger was about to use the jump rope again. When he began exercising, he had to jump higher, and after several jumps... he got tied up like a ball of wool. The old oaf at first expressed disbelief at this happening. Then because of his sudden burst of anger he would've torn the rope if it wasn't so sturdy, which was why he simply fell down like a sack of potatoes while trying so hard to free himself. His shouts filled the entire house while the prankster just tried so hard not to laugh. Right at that moment he was in the living room. Almost immediately he found a yoga exercise book near the yoga mat.

'I'm still surprised that he does yoga well without moving like a walrus.'

After thinking about a mischief for it, he got a spark of inspiration. The prankster switched the yoga book with the book of knots.

"This book will give him a new twist in this practice." he commented while grinning mischievously.

He then slowly and carefully opened the kitchen door; the first thing he saw there was Mort sleeping on the floor. Sneaking as quietly as possible to not wake the dog, he searched around for anything else useful or to mess with. The dog only had a bone squeaky toy lying next to him, other than that there was just the opened window with a nice view.

'If only the floor was somehow slippery so Rottweiler would be sent through the window, that would be funny to see.' he thought.

At the same time, the dumbbell went upstairs from the hall through living room. Woody headed to the living room's door and checked his neighbour through the keyhole. When it was safe, he left the kitchen so he could mess with the exercise bike as planned earlier. The prankster took the pliers that he had left there earlier and made sure to loosen every single screw without making it evident at glance. Meanwhile in the study Roger was about to feed his gold fish. He got the small box of what he thought was fish food, then fed his fish with it. In only mere seconds, the fish grew so much that from a harmless gold fish it turned into what seemed to be almost a piranha without any teeth. But it was still ravenous that it suddenly jumped out of its aquarium and attempted to swallow the old oaf's head. With great difficulty, he pulled the "piranha" away from him and forcefully put it back in its aquarium. Instead of being confused he just angrily growled like a mad hungry lion.

Roger dragged himself to the bedroom so he could lightly bounce on the trampoline and relax... or at least he thought that he would have a break from that incident. As soon as he began bouncing, the trampoline unexpectedly send him right into the ceiling that his head got stuck in it. It was a quite a trouble for him to release himself. But a minute later he finally succeeded to unstuck himself and tumbled on the trampoline; at least it softened his fall or rather... his belly softened it. As soon as the angry oversized couch potato stood up, he let out so much of his rage that it almost seemed like he was burning.

At that time Woody was at the basement again. He was already done with the bike prank minutes ago. When noticing the barbell again, he thought of cutting it with the saw from balcony. It was easy since the saw was designed for metal. He didn't cut it completely, just enough so it would eventually snap in two, but of course without making it blatantly obvious at first glance.

"Now Rottweiler will have two barbells." he commented out loud, knowing that his neighbour was perhaps still "busy" being angry and too far to hear him.

Woody already knew what he could do with the chest expander; it was merely to replace it with the rubber rope he had - it could surely make his neighbour's exercises a lot easier. However, it wasn't all that simple, he had to pull each spring to put one rubber rope. While doing so he accidentally pulled one too much that it slipped out of his hand and hit him right in the eye as if a rock was thrown at it. The poor young man suffered the pain from his mistake as he tried to rub his impaired eye.

"I shouldn't have pulled that expander too much..." he said miserably.

The prankster wasn't sure if he should risk it with continuing with a bruised eye.

"It is just one eye, I can still walk around. Altough I do look like a pirate now."

He tried to put the rubber rope on the springs, this time more carefully. Slowly but surely he got both of them right.

"Now... I remember the opened window in kitchen with a nice view. Maybe I could get a bar of soap to make the floor slipery." said Woody to himself and slowly he left the basement.

He was especially careful not to trip on doorsteps. When he got into the hall, he noticed the sports bag from earlier. Suddenly he got an idea to use one of the roller skates from the bag instead of some bar of soap. It maybe would be much more effective and funnier. After taking a roller skate he quietly entered the kitchen where Mort the dog was still sleeping. At the same time Roger went to living room to exercise on the bike. He was cycling on it for about a minute till the whole bike collapsed. Due to that the fat guy fell on his back like a knocked out animal and started whining like a toddler. Woody heard all of that. Carefully he tiptoed to the center of the room and placed down the roller skate, positioning well enough so it could get easily stepped on.

'From now on, it's only going down hill all the way for my neighbour.'

He was just about to carefully leave the room, but because of his bruised eye he couldn't quite see his surroundings. While sneaking he accidentally stepped on Mort's squeaky toy by accident. The dog immediately woke up from that sound and began sounding the barking alarm. The poor frightened young man screamed and quickly left the room to hide in the wardrobe. Roger heard the barking and ran straight inside the kitchen without watching his steps resulting in him stepping on the roller skate. That sent him skating throughout the kitchen and out by the window. The dog got surprised by that and desperately watched his master flying out of the room. Rottweiler ended up on the ground of his yard. This couldn't get more embarrassing, could it? Well, just at that moment the little kids were playing nearby and naturally witnessed the great fall.

"Oh look! The elf visited his house again!" said little Timmy and the rest of the kids started laughing.

Roger couldn't take the mocking laughter. He tried to quickly stand up and go into his house. But because of the roller skate still attached to his foot, he slipped, thus further amusing the little children. Finally he managed to get inside. Instead of calming down, he started yelling:

"Stupid brats! Nobody will laugh at my misery!"

Woody was still inside the wardrobe holding his breath and shivering like a tree in the wind.

'He didn't see me, he didn't see me, he didn't see me...' he repeated it to himself constantly.

Roger finally calmed down after yelling so much. Surprisingly his vocal cords were still okay after this. He stood on one place thinking for a while.

"...Dumb dog... Such annoying scamp..." he then headed to the basement. "I will slap him if he does that again today."

After he closed the door behind him, Woody carefully opened the wardrobe to peek outside. He wasn't quite sure if he could get out and leave the house. He then quickly closed it.

'No, I will wait till he starts raging again. He will be busy and I will have enough time to escape.'

The giant bald bear straightened his back before trying any other exercise. He figured that he can always train his arms. After all, he already had to deal with some delivery men who brought his equipment very late. Without much thinking he started to stretch the expander. To his surprise he stretched it pretty far. That mood quickly changed once he got pulled back and hit the wall as if he was a giant yo-yo.

"What kind of equipment is this? They promised me a satisfaction with their designs!" he yelled as loud as sirens, possibly even louder.

He recovered again and was about to try out the barbell.

"They couldn't possibly ruin this one as well. I of course picked this up before."

And of course he picked it up like intended. It seemed like it was fine at first so he lifted it up above his head. Naturally he didn't know any better. The barbell snapped in two and each part was too heavy for a single arm, even Rottweiler's one. Both fell on the ground, but one managed to fall on Roger's foot. That was too much pain for him to swallow. He started hopping on one leg while holding the injured foot and yelling again:

"SCAMMERS! They've wasted my time with these stupid toys!"

The young man now knew it was the right time. He left the wardrobe heading to the main door. His speed wasn't the fastest because he wanted to make sure he didn't trip on anything.


	29. Injury

Outside Woody, quickly managed to jump over the hedge dividing the two houses. He quickly looked around, nobody was outside. In a haste he failed to notice he stepped on his shoelaces which resulted in him falling on the ground. He whimpered a bit because he also fell on his bruised eye. It took him few minutes to get up and when he finally did, he heard a familiar voice.

"Oh my goodness! Woody, are you alright?"

It was Shelly who just got outside from her house carrying garbage. She quickly rushed to her friend with worried expression.

'Oh no, this is not good...' the young man thought to himself, knowing there is a lot to explain... or a lot to hide...

"What happened to you?" asked Shelly.

Woody tried to come up with another possible injury that could be used for his excuse. He wasn't quite sure about anything. But at last he said:

"Iiiiii... was repairing my roof... and just when I thought I was done, I climbed down and a tile fell on my face."

She then took his hand and led him to her house.

"W-wait, hold on..." he first insisted on staying and not going with her.

"You need to get aid." she looked even more worried once she said that.

When Woody looked at her face, he knew she wanted to help. However, he was scared of a possibility he would somehow let her know about his show. Then again, it would probably go worse if he refused her help. So he decided to follow her. Once inside her house he was offered a seat. Shelly went to the kitchen to find something for treatment. She came back with a cold wet handkerchief.

"Thank you for help." Woody smiled at her.

"You're welcome." Shelly replied to him. She then asked: "Is the eye hurting you?"

"Well... not really. I mean, it slightly hurt when you put the tissue on it, but other than that, it's fine."

They didn't start any new conversation. Woody couldn't think of any appropriate topic because of the stuff he had to go through before. However, they both looked at each other's eyes as their unique type of speaking. They calmed one another without any words. Shelly then went back into kitchen to cool the handkerchief again. When she returned, she got pleased.

"Hey, look! I can open the eye!"

Woody was also glad he didn't have to walk around like a strange cyclops. Nevertheless, she still left the handkerchief on the injured eye and told him:

"In case it hurts you again, please, visit a doctor."

She escorted him to his main door to make sure he didn't fall. There they exchanged the last words for today.

"Thank you again. I can slowly go by myself."

"Are you sure? I can make you dinner, if you need."

"Don't worry, I will just relax on my couch. For dinner, maybe I won't have anything too complicated."

"Alright. But I will sure check you tomorrow, okay?"

They then said bye to each other and Shelly went home. When Woody opened his main door, he saw Joe sitting alone on a chair, most likely expecting Woody.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

The young man was surprised by his presence, especially when he saw no one else.

"Joe? I thought you already left with the crew."

By the pose the director was making, it looked like he wanted to have a talk. So Woody sat on a prepared chair. Joe then asked:

"How's the eye?"

"Oh... Well, it could be worse, but it shall be okay soon." answered Woody.

Joe was now assured the host was okay. He then continued with the topic:

"The thing about that dog…"

"Yeah, I didn't see where I stepped with one eye only. I panicked then."

This answer didn't seem to satisfy the director. His face was slightly angry.

"Yet you still dared to stay hidden in the wardrobe."

"It was the only place I could stay hidden in."

"But not throughout the whole episode! If you once get spotted, you shouldn't stay there any longer!" scolded Joe to Woody who now felt misjudged by his very good friend.

He tried to explain his position as he believed the director had no idea what kind of situation he had to go through.

"I found it hard to escape."

"That fatass could have found you there and strangle you."

As if this thought wasn't enough for Woody. First it was a grab by the neighbour himself from days ago and now it was the idea of being murdered by his dirty hands. He no longer wanted to play innocent. He clearly showed in his face the anger of being insulted.

'Thanks for reminding me that, Joe.' he thought to himself. He then replied:

"I guess I was lucky."

Joe's mood didn't change that much. Slightly irritated he sighed and said:

"Consider your escape plan better next time."

Nothing else was there to argue about. Woody, however, still felt misjudged because waking up the dog was an accident from his point of view. He dropped the anger from his face and quietly said:

"...This was the first time for me..."

Joe didn't reply on that. He stayed silent for few seconds until Woody spoke again:

"You've seen me there, haven't you?"

This finally changed director's face to much more sympathetic while explaining:

"Yeah, you were pretty scared, so was I when I was watching it. Heck, all of us were!"

"And where is everybody now?" Woody looked around while asking this.

"They already left once they knew you were visiting that short friend of yours."

"It's nice of you to make sure I am alright."

This stopped Joe from talking for a minute. His face gained more seriousness, not anger though.

"I've got numerous reasons besides the obvious pals stuff."

This left Woody confused at first.

"One of them is me being responsible for the whole crew. If something happens to you, I'll get in trouble for that."

"Oh, I get it. I'll try to be careful next time." said Woody.

Joe wasn't still done with his assertion.

"Remember, if you get noticed in that bulldog's house, abandon everything you have in plan and leave the house. It's better to lose an entire episode than losing a great host."

"I'll keep that in mind." After a short pause Woody asked yet again:

"Do you remember when you said this won't happen again?"

Joe stayed quiet for few seconds. It of course brought up the first incident when he indeed mentioned this. He answered with:

"...The word 'will' does not guarantee certain future. Even though I believed in it, it somehow happened."

"Out of curiosity," Woody then continued "I'm not doubting right now: what should I do when Rottweiler… catches me?"

This left Joe speechless for a minute. He looked shocked, as if someone robbed his house. He then asked:

"You want me to give advice on something I clearly can't imagine?"

"I kind of knew it." was Woody's somewhat answer to his question.

The director did not want to play around. He was aware of the dangers of prankster's job.

"Better not think about it." he tried to stay calm and so calm his host. "Keep your smart brain and swift reactions and I believe you will avoid any trouble."

Woody nodded to his advice. Suddenly Joe's phone started ringing. He quickly picked it up.

"Yeah?"

From what could our young prankster hear, it was some young woman complaining to the director. And by his words it was possibly his girlfriend.

"Sorry, babe, I thought I would come home early... I had some emergency to take care of... I'm really sorry... I'm coming right now, see you."

He stood up and then said:

"I've got to go. See you next time."

"Bye, Joe."

And he was once again alone. The whole day felt like that one accidental episode, but somehow worse. It was this time Woody's fault for almost getting spotted... Was he getting worse as the time went on? Was it because he got an award and love from fans? The young man wasn't sure. He constantly reminded himself that the dog thing was still an accident thanks to getting hurt from the expander. Yet he still somehow felt to blame himself for staying in the wardrobe for long just like the director said so. He wasn't sure who or what to blame for this all...


	30. Uneasy mood

In the quiet peaceful blank place, Woody with shiny light above his head was putting hard rocks on the bed which happened to be neighbour's. The bright soft feathers of his wings were freely floating in the air. As fragile as they were, they were always prepared for swift flight from any danger… like the dirty hands of the greedy devil preparing to tear them apart. Woody's smart sense acted fast. He flew to the other side of the bed and finally made an eye contact with his rival - horned Rottweiler.

"Nothing lasts forever. Once I'll catch up to you and squash you into a pancake." threatened the neighbour trying to scare the young man.

Of course, having still whole wings he didn't let this sentence to bring him fear into his mind. He replied:

"You're right, nothing lasts forever, but your cruelty is the thing that is going to end!"

"Trying to be smart again? Admit it! You're one naive rat pretending to be the hero of the neighbourhood! You're not really brave! You get scared just by walking around my property! Like a chicken! And now I'll pull out every single feather of your back! Like a chicken getting prepared for a dinner!"

This was the moment when Woody knew he had to escape. He spread his wings to fly away. Unfortunately neighbour's tail-whip managed to catch him by his leg.

"Give up already! You're nothing compared to me!" shouted Rottweiler already having an evil plan in mind.

Woody didn't want to give up yet. He flapped his wings as fast as he could to slow down the process of being pulled. In his pocket he still had sack of marbles. He fired them one by one at the ugly face of the old fatso.

"You're wrong! I'll teach you that you're worse than you look!" proclaimed the young man.

The marbles were hitting the idiot's nose, teeth and finally one of his eyes. The pain in the eye made him cover his face with a hand, so finally Woody was not pulled anymore. The never-ending air strike of many coloured little balls were now too much for the old oaf and finally his tail released the flying wonder.

Flying through the blank place the shining light sensed disturbance in the air. No longer was it peaceful like before, scary thoughts were taking over the sky turning it from light blue to orange red.

'It's no longer safe here. I fear a storm might appear in the dark clouds that now start to appear. I should get home.' thought to himself worried Woody.

He landed on the ground to avoid before mentioned danger and started to walk on foot. His wings were still prepared to serve their purpose just in case. All of a sudden he was noticed by Mort the horned dog. He started barking as an alarm for his master. The young man found a nearby wardrobe which he often used as a hiding spot. He entered it and closed the door. It probably was not such a good idea. The wardrobe was strangely spacious. A huge darkness surrounded Woody, only his light and wings were glowing. Should he leave or stay? But then he heard it - the evil laughter. The neighbour covered in blackness with glowing red eyes and horns grabbed the wings. Woody panicked. He opened the wardrobe door in effort to escape from nasty Rottweiler. However, he couldn't get much further because of Mort still awaiting in front of wardrobe. Instead he was pulled back, wings shattered, being captured.

"I need a new handrail on my balcony." said the scary looking neighbour holding the young man by the neck.

He took him to his dirty balcony covered with bird droppings and tied him up to the old handrail. Woody shaking with fear felt really uncomfortable at his new prison where he couldn't even move. But the worse thing was looking at his rival who only seemed more evil when he could barely be seen in the darkness.

"Hmm… The new handrail needs to be sharpened." said out loud the dark horned figure.

That only meant one thing for the wingless one.

"Y-you are not going to do something to me, a-are you?"

"Maybe…" and he pulled out a sharp grinder.

Even more frightened young man started to beg him.

"J-just leave me here for the cold weather and birds till the end of my life. P-please, have that kind of treatment towards me!"

"Really? Oh no, you're now a handrail, I can't let that be in this shape." laughed the fat man and started his grinder "The nose stands out the most." so he started with it.

So much noise came out of that grinder that not only hurt his nose but even ears. It was not anymore bearable. Woody finally opened his eyes. No, it was not just his thoughts, the neighbour was indeed grinding the handrail on his balcony.

"At 7 AM! WHY?!"

After a while he decided there was no point of trying to fall asleep. He checked the big dog from his window. His assumption was correct, but that wasn't surprising at all.

"He is really going too far with this. Not even children here want to be woken up by this thing!" said Woody to himself.

He checked other rooms and he noticed some wooden pieces lying on ground. The exercising bike from last time was nowhere to be seen, nor was the trampoline.

"Who knows if he already returned the equipment that he purchased. Maybe not, considering they... broke a little bit."

He suddenly heard a knocking on his door. He expected it to be Shelly. She visited him from time to time to check his eye up. But to his surprise, instead of Shelly it was Kelsie behind the door dressed like she usually does while shooting.

"Hello there," she greeted with a smile "how are you?"

"H-hello. Are we going to record the episode now? Or what is going on?" asked confused Woody.

"No no no, don't worry! I just came to check the basement camera." assured Kelsie immediately.

That calmed the young man and so he let her inside. She sat on his sofa like always and opened her laptop. The prankster came to her just to see the camera for himself. The laptop then quickly displayed the shot of the basement.

"Ah, it still works! Perfect! It also doesn't need to be charged up just yet."

This statement made Woody curious.

"What will we do if the battery runs out?"

"Well... I think you would have to take it back to us so we could charge it." she said.

"So is this all that you came for?" he then asked one more question.

"Yup. The shooting will go just like normal."

The conversation proceeded further with Woody asking:

"What else can you do on the laptop? I've never owned one."

"Not much. I mean, when it comes to working on episodes. In my free time I usually spend time on internet and listening to music."

"So it's just like on a computer. Now I understand. May I try it out? I'm kind of curious how it works."

"Okay then."

Kelsie put the laptop on a table so her friend could try it out. She cancelled the screen with basement camera and the desktop showed up. As its background she had a fluffy orange cat lying in the grass.

"Nice picture." said Woody.

This made Kelsie very pleased.

"That's my cousin's cat."

He noticed few folders at the upper right corner, one of them specifically named 'kitties'.

"You seem to like cats a lot, don't you?"

"I do." Kelsie wasn't afraid of admitting it. Even her smile resembled a cat's mouth.

There was also another folder that caught young man's attention:

"What the heck is 'Therion'?" he was about to explore it, but Kelsie only said:

"Well, I listen to it only when I'm bored. Really bored."

The folder contained songs. When Woody double-clicked on one of them, there was suddenly thunderously loud music consisting of electric guitar and loud scream. The editor quickly turned it off. Even then it seemed like there was a mini-hurricane that blew into their faces.

"Oops! I accidentally left it on high volume. I swear I only listen to it when I'm bored." she said with an embarrassed tone. It took a while for Woody to wake up from his shock.

"What the-...?! I mean, what the flying pigs?! Do you realize you can destroy you own eardrums?" he angrily shouted while trying to clean his ears from the noise.

"Hey, I'm used to loud music." she explained herself.

Things became worse when a familiar rough unpleasant voice came from next-door. Woody hesitantly went to the window to see who it was and to his shock:

"Trickster! What the hell kind of garbage music you're playing over there?! Are you listening to old trains on rusty railroads?!" it was Roger strongly complaining about the blaring music.

"You mean electric guitar? That's so called 'metal' for your information." Kelsie showed from the window stating that.

What she did wasn't a very good idea, because it made the old oaf surprised and then say with evil expression:

"Well, well, cheating on your shy girl already?"

This exact sentence made both of them really mad, Kelsie yelled:

"Listen up, fatass! I'm already taken by a wrestler! I can call him to kick your your stinking butt!"

While the young man shouted:

"No! I'm not cheating on Shelly!"

However, that made Baldy McBald take the nearest possible object, which happened to be the lamp, and scream at Kelsie and Woody even louder:

"Shut up!"

He tried to throw the lamp at them. However because of Roger's bad aiming, it missed and broke after hitting the side, while leaving them scared. Fortunately, a familiar female voice was heard from outside:

"What's going on there?!" and it was Olga.

It was more than enough reason for Roger to cowardly ran away to another room. Kelsie and Woody also hid under the window and tried to calm down a bit from what just happened. After about a moment the young man asked:

"A-a-are you re-really taken?"

"...Noooo... I lied." she replied, but then immediately recalled what Roger said few minutes ago and asked: "Who does he mean by 'shy girl'? Are you her boyfriend?"

"Noooo..." the young man spoke in an embarrassed manner that he was almost as red as a tomato, while he was thinking 'Oh, good grief...' As if he was suddenly afraid of the editor. She put her hand on his shoulder and gently said:

"Calm down there. You mentioned someone before."

"Yeah... my neighbour Shelly... she's my friend."

"That's nice. Are you two good friends?"

"Very good friends."

"It can be annoying when this jerk makes fun of you," she then proceeded "but it's even worse when he makes fun of your friends."

"Y-yeah. It-it's everyday problem, you see..." the young man only agreed.

"I wish I could give you some helpful advice... but sometimes there are some things you have to live with. At least you are sort of punishing him with your pranks."

It was only then that Woody realized he was scared for no reason. He gave his heart to Shelly, while Kelsie despite having nobody treats him as a friend only. That made him relieved and so he smiled at her as a sign of appreciation.

* * *

Meanwhile at JoWood Studio were rest of the members. Markus was smoking near a window, Nick was playing on his audio mixer and the twins were preparing coffee. Joe was at his personal office. Everything seemed calm there. That was until the door got opened and an angry serious shouting came in:

"JOE DEEN!" it turned out to be Maurice Paek the manager.

The shout and the fact that it was him shocked everyone in the room. Nick got so surprised he fell backwards with the chair and stayed lying on the ground with his legs comically in the air. Markus on the other hand spitted out his cigarette.

The manager looked around. After that, he asked one of the twins:

"Is your director here?"

The twin pointed at Joe's office with left hand. After shutting the office door behind Maurice, the members could only hear yelling of the manager coming from the office. It couldn't be understood what was told there. It longed for about 3 minutes. Maurice left the office still irritated, almost the same as Roger Rottweiler would look like after getting hit by newspaper. Just at that time Michael and a young woman with blond braided hair came in holding bags of crackers. The manager passed by which left them confused.

Nick got up from the ground noticing that Maurice finally left. He said:

"Phew, it's over." then sighed from relief.

Markus replied to that:

"I wouldn't say so."

The blue eyed blonde woman asked the twins who were nearby:

"What happened here?"

Both of the twins explained the situation to them with their gestures and facial expressions. After understanding all of that, it got Michael quite shocked.

"Oh dear! Someone got yelled at here?" he asked.

When the blond woman understood that, she decided to go in front of the office door. It was already open, but she knocked on it to let her presence known.

'Who is it?' Joe thought, clearly not in the mood for any conversation. But he still uttered "Yes...?" in a somewhat monotone voice.

After she entered, the director turned to see who it was. When he did, his expression changed to slightly more positive and half-smiling.

"Oh, it's you, Lena..." he was obviously relieved seeing her.

"Is anything wrong, dear?" Lena asked concernedly.

"I got scolded by the manager." the director replied shortly.

"Is he your boss, or what?" her forehead furrowed.

"Well, we just work together..." he stated and paused for a moment, then his look turned from blank to sullen as he continued "...but I am responsible for most of the things in this studio."

"I understand this, but what happened to you?" she inquired, more concerned than she already was.

Joe let out a deep sigh of what seemed to be between tension and dejection.

"It's one of those days when someone isn't careful. That day, the host wasn't careful. He got almost into trouble because a dog spotted him and he made a noise." he explained as he rubbed his forehead from frustration.

"And you got blamed for that?" her eyes widened, she got unpleasantly surprised hearing that.

"I'm the director! Of course I got blamed for that!" because of the stress, Joe couldn't seem to hold back his anger in anymore. He unknowingly had let himself raise his voice.

There was silence for about a moment. He felt bad for letting out his frustration, and the regret clouded his eyes. He began speaking again by earnestly saying:

"I'm sorry, honey..."

"I understand..." she gave him a comforting smile and put her hand on his shoulder.

"It's just that when you're the leader of something, it is you with the most responsibility..."

After hearing all of that, Lena felt like giving him a reassuring hug.

"You did definitely your job well enough." she said to him encouragingly and gave him a slight kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you." he smiled warmly.

However, he still had something else on his mind, and said:

"Listen, I need someone to do a makeup for our host. I couldn't find anybody here who has got time for that." The blonde woman stayed silent for a while trying to think of something. When the director was about to say something, she suddenly replied:

"Wait, honey, don't rush, I can help"

"You?" he was surprised to hear that.

"Yeah! Do you remember that moment when I returned home with a disguised scratch? You were very frightened when I washed off my makeup" she added, and gave a little laugh because of her memory. "I know how to do this, I was taught by my makeup artist."

"Really? That's great! Then help us! ...Please."

"I have a job at 19:00 pm. Today is an evening dynamic episode, they need a stuntwoman."

"Yeah! Sure. Then we start work right now, dear. You can make it on time!"

"I'll be waiting for you near your crew." she said and walked toward the door.

"Thanks, dear." said Joe while still staying at his office.

* * *

Some time passed and finally Joe's crew arrived at Woody's house. The host went to open to greet his friend.

"Hi, Joe!" The director wasn't pleased as usual. His expression was somewhere between irritated and disappointed. That alone made Woody confused.

"You don't look like you're in good mood today."

Joe only sighed.

"That bruise still isn't gone yet."

"But it definitely looks better. I can properly walk now."

"You will get a little bit of makeup on that from Lena here." the director made that decision and pointed on the blonde woman.

"What?! No way!" the host refused and gave the director angry look.

"Woody, don't persuade me to force you into it." said Joe trying to stay as calm as possible.

"Look, I have my limits and I won't have any makeup on my face!"

"Listen, Woody, I am not saying this out of the blue. Personally, I want to focus more on your acting rather than your look. However, the manager saw the latest episode and..." he then paused for a while.

This brought the bad memories back to everyone. The director still stayed calm and finished his line:

"...he doesn't want to see you injured in the show. The only way to avoid it is to cover that bruise just so it isn't noticable."

The host still being disappointed only replied:

"I guess if this is just for the show... I'll comply."

He then sat down on a nearby chair where Lena could apply a slight amount of makeup. It wasn't that much, but even then it was something unpleasant for our prankster. Finally he looked like he didn't have any bruise at all.

"I'm surprised you stayed quite calm during all this." said smiling Lena as if she was having a good time.

Woody didn't comment on this line. He only took his good old superglue and his phone, because he thought they could be useful. He was ready to leave. At the door Joe told him:

"You look good enough, I think. Good luck."

Right after the young man closed the door behind him, he heard a familiar voice:

"Hello, Woody."

It caught him off guard when found out that it was of course Shelly. He was really hoping that she wouldn't be outside at shooting time.

"H-Hello, Shelly!" he nervously greeted as he hid the superglue behind his back while thinking 'How do I get inside without Shelly noticing me?'

She was gazing at him lovingly with a sweet bashful smile. This made him kind of nervous to the point of sweating and blushing a little.

'Oh gosh, she's looking at me like that again. I sadly don't have time for that.'

At this moment, he tried to think of what he should say without sounding out of place. While trying to come up with something of what to say, he got once again that unexplained warm fuzzy feeling when he looked at Shelly again. With even redder face, she was slowly starting to hide her own smile in her sweater. Then the young man noticed that her watering can was empty, so he pointed out:

"Yo-You're out of water."

"Eek! Th-Thanks f-for telling me!" the young lady felt quite embarrassed about this.

With such awkwardness, Shelly walked back to her house to refill it. While her back was turned, it gave the prankster the opportunity to jump over the hedge as quickly as possible so he can go to Roger's house.

'I'll be right back Shelly!'

With thought in mind, the mischievous hero stealthily approached the house of his enemy Roger Rottweiler. The couch potato once again will be punished with stealth and humour.

* * *

 **Author's note:** I'd just like to thank my other friend Dik-LEN-vaY for helping us by telling us about her character Lena's personality, it just helped us a lot writing it.

Update 1: There's an extra dialogue where there is supposed to be a mention of Dik-LEN-vaY's character being a stuntwoman.

Update 2: Changed the dialogue between Joe and Lena to nearly match a comic which was based on that part of this chapter. Because honestly, the comic was a lot better than what I did - it showed more closeness between those two characters. It was thanks to Dik-LEN-vaY for that, she did a great job!


	31. Do it yourself

The host entered the house and greeted his viewers with his typical cowboyish dance gesture. After that he took a closer listen to his surrounding. From living room he could hear some noises. By looking through the keyhole he saw Roger picking up some wooden and metal pieces from the ground trying to put them together somehow. Woody wasn't sure what his intention was, because the way the beer barrel was working with them seemed like he had no clue either. Even with a manual on the ground nearby, he just couldn't figure out anything.

"How the Hell does this work?" the fatso asked himself.

'I don't know, dear neighbour. I don't think you can understand the simple rules of 'Sorry!' either.' Woody thought to himself as if he was giving an answer.

It didn't take that long for Roger to throw the pieces against the floor and angrily growl like a bear. That woke up Mort the dog sleeping on the other side of the room. The fatso only mumbled to himself while flipping the pages of the manual. Woody decided to look into basement for something useful. Once in there he noticed a lot of boxes of different styles lying near a corner. First he thought those were from the useless equipment, but after a closer look some of them had pictures of a rocking chair.

"So is that what he is trying to accomplish? A rocking chair? Geez, 'Sorry!' is more challenging than that! You have to rely on dice! This is just step by step!"

He then examined the working desk. There were a lot of tools like a wrench, a screwdriver, tongs and others. Not sure about what to pick, he thought that the tongs could be used in multiple ways. Just then he heard heavy steps above his head. What was he going to do? The prankster listened closely where the giant bear was walking. It seemed like he was heading to basement.

'If I don't hide anywhere, I will end up as a trophy in his study!' the young man thought to himself while looking around.

He then noticed the pile of boxes and quickly jumped into it. He made sure to be covered by them. Through a small opening he was watching his neighbour approaching his dryer. It turned out there was a pipe with a valve above it. The hairy yeti grabbed the valve and turned it. After that, he walked out of the basement. Once the coast was clear, Woody came out of the boxes. Noticing the steam coming out of the pipe, he figured it must have been stopped. He decided it would be a good idea; or rather a good prank - if he turned the valve the other way. So he went for it, but it wasn't easy. He had to give out so much strength just to slightly move it. After a small turn, it then went smoothly.

"Enjoy the warm surprise." the prankster chuckled to himself.

Before really leaving the basement, he scattered his marbles on the ground for even bigger surprise. In the hall, he went to the kitchen door to check through the keyhole. There he found Roger in front of radiator. Realizing the consequence of the previous act, he immediately rushed to the living room. In there he tiptoed to the bedroom so he wouldn't wake up Mort the dog.

Just in that moment Roger turned on the radiator. The steam came out of it, but it was so hot it nearly burnt his skin. That was something he did not expect, so he let out a loud scream like a siren. He then quickly backed off to avoid the hot steam.

"What the Hell?! I thought I turned off the heat!" he angrily yelled.

With that said he ran to the basement to fix the problem, only to find another one lying on the ground. In just few seconds the giant potato slipped on the marbles and crashed into a wall. What followed that was a loud harsh swearing.

All that was heard by Woody who was in the bedroom. It looked like usual, of course without the trampoline from the last time. He looked around and even checked the wardrobe. There wasn't anything interesting for him, just dirty clothes. So he checked the nightstand and in there he found a book. It was dark red with a front picture of a blade and the title:

'From the guillotine to the electric chair'

What a horrifying title! It really gave Woody shivers. He just got reminded of those very bad things that happened in this house. He tried to quickly calm down while saying to himself:

"Interesting bedtime reading for someone who is really into violence. Really, all he needs are horns and a tail."

He brought the book with him in case he would think of a great way of ruining it somehow. After that he went to the balcony. There he found the sharpener which Roger most likely used for waking up the whole neighbourhood. Even just by looking at the device made Woody angry. He wasted no more time and quickly examined it. It didn't look like a new sharpener, it must had been used for quite a long time.

"Hmm, this needs some fixing."

The prankster then used the tongs to loosen the sharp disc. He of course then placed it to its original place like before.

"This sharpener will be from now on much quieter."

There was still some time left before the great clumsy bald clown was back to his senses. So the young man quickly checked the study. The first thing that caught his attention was a ladder in the middle of the room. Up on the ceiling he saw some wires coming out.

"I wouldn't really expect the neighbour climbing up this high. I thought he preferred to stay lying on the ground."

As he was looking up and thinking, the fish in the aquarium were watching him. The young man looked at them.

'Perhaps I could use some water from there to light up the room? I can't see how... The wires are way too high... Even if I climbed the ladder, I'm just not tall enough...'

He then came up with an idea.

'I can't use the wires, but I can use the ladder!'

And so he cut the chain that hold the whole ladder with tongs.

"Now Rottweiler won't be able to get very high with this ladder."

He then went back to bedroom, because he had a feeling his neighbour was finally on his feet again. Right there he heard the steps getting closer. Without hesitation the prankster quickly slid under the bed to be safe. Roger entered the room, still angry from what happened to him. It seemed like he would punch anybody just by looking at them. Woody only watched how the stinky troll stomped his way to the balcony. Because he quickly slid under the bed, that caused some dust to fly around him. He tried his best not to breathe too much to avoid the risk of sneezing. When Roger closed the balcony door behind him, the young man was finally able to leave the room. Just when he got out, he was about to sneeze. He inhaled once, then twice, but just when he was about to for the third time he held his nose. With that he quickly went to living room. It was only there he got back to normal and didn't sneeze.

'Phew, I definitely don't need to reveal myself.' he thought to himself.

After that, he looked closer at the pieces of rocking chair lying in the corner. There were not just wooden pieces, but also few metal ones. Along with them there was a manual that looked rather simple. He then just swapped the manual with the book he found earlier. The first page that he opened was something... very similar looking to the final product.

"Oh, so he wants to build a rocking chair. I'm sure he will understand the new instructions, as he probably knows the book by heart."

Meanwhile on the balcony, Roger picked up the sharpener and was about to continue with what he started earlier. He turned on the device... but in just few seconds it shot the sharp disc right outside of the balcony and when it landed a child screamed out of fear. The neighbour couldn't react to that. He was shocked, unable to say a word. When he looked where the disc landed, he only then realized the terrible mistake. It landed on Olga's yard and the child that screamed earlier was Timmy Akim who probably played alone earlier. The little boy was crying even though it looked like he wasn't injured in any way. Olga finally got outside to check on her son.

"What happened, sweetheart?" she asked worryingly.

"Mommy! Mommy! That bad man threw a silver disc at me!" Timmy answered while sobbing.

Olga looked at Roger's house to find the culprit. When she found him, she turned wrathful.

"YOU?!"

Her sudden change of voice made Roger's three hairs stand on his head. He dropped his sharpener and started shivering as if he got stuck in refrigerator for couple of hours.

"You dare to throw dangerous objects at my son?! I'll show you!"

She picked up the disc carefully and madly threw it back on the balcony where it came from. Roger only then ducked to dodge it. He then panicked and went inside. After shutting the door, the old bald man repeatedly took deep breaths in order to calm down.

Woody witnessed all that from kitchen window and couldn't help but to chuckle. If he could, he would even laugh loudly.

"Now you see she has no interest in a mean dirty guy like you." he said to himself as if he was talking to his neighbour.

He then checked through the keyhole to the living room where Roger went into. He still had a scared expression on his face. Mort was still sleeping, but even he would be surprised about him. The frightened walrus was about to continue assembling the parts of rocking chair. While doing that he also looked at the manual. Suddenly the assembling got faster than before. Maybe he finally understood the instructions, maybe he still had fear on the back of his head. Whatever the case, he quickly put together all of the wooden and metal pieces. And so he finally did it! He assembled... an electric chair? Well, not a perfect looking one, but the metal pieces definitely helped with the helmet part. Only then Roger realized what he did. Terrified by the creation he screamed out of fear, which certainly amused Woody. He had never seen Rottweiler this scared. But sadly, the funny moment lasted only a while as the big fat dog looked closely at the "manual".

He then unleashed his big anger by stomping and waving his fists in the air, which even woke up Mort the dog. He then grabbed the book and threw it against the wall. Perhaps the book lost his heart. If only Mr. FatBald had hidden in his wardrobe till the end of the day, that would have been hilarious on its own. At least there was a different reaction, rather than just all anger and nothing else. Viewers had to see something new, too. Believe it or not, Roger finally calmed down from that and headed to the hall. Woody came to the other door to still watch him. He saw how he went to the basement and after some time he came back with a drill. He then approached the picture of his mother and removed it from the wall. Behind it there was something Woody couldn't see yet. After removing something from there, Roger went upstairs again, giving a chance for Woody to see what was that about. It turned out there was a fuse box behind the picture all this time. There were six fuses, each one labeled with different names. One of them was removed by Roger before and it was labeled as "Badrom, Studi", of course with typos.

"Geez, not even my first class teacher would forgive such typos. I mean, how can you mess up the word 'bed'? I sometimes wonder how Rottweiler finished his school."

He then remembered the wires from the ceiling in the study, so it gave him an idea to do something unthinkable. He thought of taking another fuse and placed it on the spot meant for the study, which would guarantee electricity in that room.

'Hmm... should I do that? I'm not quite sure...' he thought about it before actually doing it.

That only made him remember that his neighbour survived many things like tasting shoe and vinegar, getting his face burnt and even crushing into ceiling. His body was like made of steel, hardly anything could break him. Not to mention, he was also very cruel. With his final decision he faced to his audience and said:

"What can possibly go wrong if I do this?" and so he switched one fuse.

Roger got to the study with his drill and climbed the ladder that he had prepared there. Little did he know the chains on them were cut, so when he actually got up and started drilling, the ladder collapsed and he got stuck on the ceiling. Because he was drilling and there was nothing under his feet, he started spinning in one place. After like twenty spins he finally let go off the drill and fell on the ground. He was so confused both from the unexpected outcome and spinning. When he got to his senses again, he angrily cursed at the ladder and tried to fix the chains. He just tied them as best as he could, because he was too lazy to fix it normally.

He was once again on the ladder which didn't collapse this time. He was about to check the wires by actually touching one of them without any hand protection. He was certain about the electricity being down in that room. It turned out to be otherwise. Just by touching one single wire Roger started flashing that his skeleton could also be seen. He was definitely a big light bulb in the room. It didn't last very long. He fell on the ground, still conscious. He then only stared at the ceiling confusingly saying:

"...Mommy?"

Woody didn't get a chance of seeing it. Still, he was putting some of his superglue on the telephone in the hall. He then hid in the kitchen and made a call with his own phone. Hearing the ringing Roger made a big effort in getting up. Only then he started to get irritated.

"Who the Hell dares to call me?"

It took a while for him to get downstairs, but Woody was patient and he really wanted his prank to be executed. Finally when he answered, the young man only made not so loud oinking sounds. The big fat neighbour got offended and wanted to hang up. To his surprise, the receiver got stuck to his ear that he couldn't get it off. He angrily yelled like a tiger missing his tooth. Woody only happily smiled while saying:

"As a friend of the little piggy, I warned you about your behaviour."

Roger was pulling the receiver as hard as he could. At last he pulled it from his ear, but it did hurt nonetheless, resulting in him screaming in absolute pain. It was then followed by growling of anger. Woody then thought he could leave, however because he was in kitchen, he had to wait for Roger to leave. The mad sack of potatoes only complained on one place:

"How come I am doing nothing right today?! I can't build a rocking chair, I can't grind properly, I can't remove the right fuse...! NOTHING IS RIGHT!"

The young man only listened near the door thinking to himself:

'Maybe if you stopped with your bad behaviour towards others, things would probably change back to normal.'

Roger only stomped around in one place with furious expression, first to the bathroom door, then to the basement door. Woody first thought it was just his way of calming himself down. That changed once Rottweiler went to basement and after few minutes he came back with a bag of tools. Immediately it looked like another great opportunity for a prank that should not be missed. Once the old man closed the bathroom door behind him, the prankster got out of the kitchen to sneakily check what he was up to. Through the keyhole he saw how Roger was slowly removing the washbasin from the wall.

'Could it be possible he closed the water as well?' the young man thought to himself, so he went to the basement.

In there there was also another valve on pipe next to the heat one. Now came a question if Rottweiler really closed the water as well. There wasn't anything that could give an indication of that fact. The prankster of thinking of what to do... It took few minutes for him to come up with a quick solution. In the basement there was of course a washing machine. He turned it on to see if some water would make it into the device. The machine made strange noises as if it was asking for an important ingredient for perfect wash and it wasn't some washing powder. Indeed, the water was closed. With that question answered the young man turned the valve, which made the washing machine finally do its job. He then planned to leave the house completely, but before that he quickly turned off the device. After that it was straight to the main door.

In that moment, Roger received a big wet surprise in the bathroom. Water came from the washbasin pipe with such a strong impact that it threw him towards the door. He was now more confused than before and because of situation it made him whine:

"Momma!"

He tried to cover himself with arms, but it was already useless, he was already all wet as if he fell into a lake. Such misery like his neighbours had, now experienced by Roger Rottweiler himself. That was punishment done by our host Woody Trickster.

* * *

 **Author's note:** I usually write the parts with the pranks, but this time my friend wanted to have a go at it, so I tried worked on some of the bits of the previous and next chapter with her help.

Also, an English translation of "Mensch ärgere dich nicht" was going to be added there. However, since my friend couldn't find a legit translation of the German title, she looked up a game that plays very similary and it was "Sorry!"


	32. Wet neighbour

It was another job well done, definitely better than the last time. Woody quickly and sneakily went into his house without anyone noticing him. In there he was praised by Nick:

"Man, that prank with water was awesome!"

"Couldn't you pick up a different book that didn't have any electric chairs in it?" asked Kelsie who was slightly worried.

Markus simply replied to that:

"I liked it."

Kelsie looked at him suspiciously. He then explained:

"That jerk deserves that. He is an a-"

"Okay! I get it." the editor interrupted him there.

Michael's comment was:

"You now resembled Batman by avenging the little pig."

Only Joe's expression was neutral. He wasn't either excited nor disappointed.

"Well done." he said.

He then ordered the crew to pack up their cameras. This all left Woody confused and kind of worried. He approached Kelsie and asked:

"Was he like that throughout the whole shooting?"

"I'm sorry, but I wasn't looking. Lena was with him. You know who that is, don't you?"

"Actually, I see her for the first time."

"Oh yeah. Well, she is his wife. She just came for this episode to do makeup for you."

"Really? I didn't know he is already married."

The young man then approached Joe's wife to ask:

"Excuse me? Have you noticed Joe's expression this whole time?"

"His expression? Oh, he is always concentrated. You can hardly tell if he is angry or something else." was her reply.

Then the whole crew was about to leave. Woody quickly stopped the director in the door.

"Were my pranks too mean?" the prankster questioned.

"I'll let you know tomorrow" the director replied.

Shelly was just coming out of her house and she heard Woody talking to someone she didn't know. At that moment, the young man noticed her.

"Hello, Shelly!" he greeted her as he waved.

"Who-who is that?" Shelly timidly asked.

"Oh, that is my friend, Joe. Joe, this is my neighbour Shelly." he introduced them to each other.

"Nice to meet you." Joe said as he offered a handshake.

"M-Me too..." the young lady tried to speak up.

She then turned to her friend by asking him:

"Haven't you mentioned him before?"

"Oh yeah! I have!" Woody exclaimed "He had his sick cat I had to take care of."

When the director heard what his host made up, his face turned to between surprised and irritated.

"You sure have a wild imagination. Do I even need to ask you about that?" he questioned him in a whisper.

"Just work with it, please." Woody whispered back with a sort of pleading expression.

"Eh-erm... yes. Although sometimes you do have a wild imagination when it comes to 'my cat'." Joe went along with it, even when slightly annoyed by it.

Then the director left after they said "bye" along with Shelly. Woody and Shelly were alone now.

"I thought of baking more cookies for you." she said with a bashful smile.

"Oh, that's so nice of you. You didn't have to."

That was exactly when Woody realized that what he just said seemed out of place and even awkward.

"I mean! I meant that... I'm glad..." he tried to reword himself "I really appreciate your kindness."

Suddenly they heard opening door from Rottweiler's house. When they looked, they saw the neighbour all wet like a dog that took a swim in a lake. The big wet sponge looked around his yard. Once he noticed the two short ones, he growled at them. Immediately Woody tried to protect scared Shelly, even though he himself was shivering. The bald dog stomped around his yard looking for something. There was quite a mess, with different garbage lying around. When it seemed like he couldn't find anything, he quickly approached the short neighbours.

"Bucket! Now!" he yelled.

Shelly got so scared she hid her face in Woody's embrace. Woody only asked:

"Ec-excus-se m-me?"

"You can understand words, give me your bucket! Hurry!"

"B-b-but I-I-I d-d-d-don't have..."

"Then you! Shy face! Your bucket!"

This attitude towards Shelly angered Woody to the point when he gained enough courage to stand up for her.

"D-don't yell at her like that!"

"Oh what? You will scream and Olga will come? Go ahead, shorty! Try it!"

It took a while for Woody to say and point behind Roger's back.

"I-I would stay calm on your place. Because she is over there!"

"Really?" said scared Roger and looked behind himself.

This allowed our prankster and his friend to quickly escape into his house. The fat neighbour only realized that after he turned back.

"Aaargh! COWARDS!"

He then came to the main door and spat at it. After that he walked away, probably to bully someone else just for one bucket.

"Phew, that was a close one." said Woody who still had Shelly in his embrace.

She then backed off with a sad expression on her face.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

She hesitated for a while.

"Mmm... nothing..." she then answered.

This still made Woody worried. He didn't like seeing his friend sad.

"Well, I didn't want you to be bullied by Rottweiler... but hey, did you notice he was all wet?" he tried to bring something positive into their conversation.

"Yes. I wonder why though."

"You know, I like warm bath, perhaps even Rottweiler. But maybe he took it too far by taking the bath at inappropriate time when he still had clothes on."

This made Shelly giggle, which was all the young man wanted to see. He joined her in laughing and that made both of them feel better. The rest of the day they spent together chatting about their families without that much joking around. It was a good relaxation for the young man, as pranking his neighbour was also a tiring job, especially when he had to hear his yelling and swearing over and over again. It was still enjoyable, because it was Woody's way of punishment to Rottweiler, but sometimes, people need some kind of variation in their lives. It then makes it easier to handle everything else.


	33. Broken mower

It was 8:00 am at JoWood studio. The camera crew were gathered around Kelsie's laptop watching a movie; not just any movie, but it was a particular one. It was the same one that Joe didn't like at all. That was why he wasn't present at that moment.

"Is it coming? Is it coming?" Nick was getting impatient, he was munching on crisps from time to time.

"In a few seconds." Kelsie replied with a smile.

And indeed there was the moment they were waiting, that it even made the red-headed guy exclaim:

"There he is!"

The reaction of Thomas at this certain moment was trying not to laugh, while the other twin Boris simply looked at him in confusion.

"That is one cheap green screen effect." Michael remarked.

"Seriously? You guys worship this moment?" Markus questioned in a disinterested manner.

"It's funny, and kind of charming." the auburn-haired woman responded.

However, it was suddenly interrupted because Joe himself entered with the words:

"Alright, gang, got something here which might-..."

He didn't finish his sentence when he saw his crew reacting surprisingly at his presence. Kelsie very quickly closed her laptop, while Markus and the twins stood there staring at Joe. Even Nick was so scared, he carelessly threw aside the bag of crisps which accidentally ended up on Michael's face.

"Nick! Careful!" the blond man said.

From their reaction alone, Joe somehow suspected what they were up to. He glared at them and shouted demandingly:

"Pack your cameras! Now!"

The crew immediately listened and started packing. The director approached Nick and asked:

"What were you all watching?"

"Why do you ask me?" said Nick who was unsure about his question.

"And who should I ask?"

"...Kelsie?"

"Answer me." Joe's face looked so serious that Nick didn't know what to say.

He was well known for being too talkative and saying things that he shouldn't. He then tried to lie while still keeping things cool.

"Weeeee...? Certainly weren't watching your movie."

The statement itself already said what was up. Joe only facepalmed and stated:

"Still watching that movie? I thought you already gave up on that."

The rest of the crew wished they could tape Nick's mouth so he wouldn't say any more secrets.

* * *

Meanwhile in Blue Highway it seemed peaceful. Woody got out of his house to witness the outdoor by himself. It was quite warm and the sky was clear. Indeed a nice weather. Woody suddenly saw Mort on his yard chewing something. But it wasn't just anything, it was his newspaper which made him sigh irritatedly at him and went:

"Really?"

The young man tried to take it back from him, but the dog stubbornly resisted resulting in pulling back and forth.

"Give it back! Let go!" he shouted at him.

After a lot of pulling and dragging, he finally managed to take the newspaper. However, it was all covered in dog slobber. Things weren't any better as the old fart Roger was nearby watching the whole happening, he only snorted and laughed. Woody just looked at him unamused without saying a word, but he thought that the old fart was not worth of his time right now.

'I wonder how Shelly is doing.' the young man thought to himself.

He saw Shelly feeding a flock of pigeons on the ground with bird food in her yard. She noticed Woody approaching, so she greeted sheepishly but still with a smile:

"Oh... hello, Woody."

"Hello, Shelly!" he greeted back, "How are you today?"

"Umm... I'm doing well, I'm just feeding these pigeons."

Some of the pigeons were clumsily trying to get to the food before the other ones which made both of them laugh. After that Woody asked her:

"Say, can I join you?"

"Sure."

Then he sat next to her. He took the bag of bird food from her and threw some of it on the ground near the pigeons. That immediately made even a few more of them come over there flying to the food. They both felt a warm feeling as they both got lost into each other's eyes while more pigeons while fluttered to the ground. It seemed like in this moment, the world stopped and nothing else mattered to them.

All of a sudden, the peaceful moment was interrupted with a terrifyingly loud noise. It scared both of them as well as all of the birds. The source of the sound was coming from of course the house of Roger Rottweiler. He was trying to turn on his lawn mower. For him it was a lot of effort to the point of growling under his breath. The engine of the mower eventually started running with as much power as it could. Satisfied with that, the old oaf shouted in a somewhat victorious way:

"Hah! It works!"

However as soon as he said that, it immediately stopped working. Roger was left both shocked and confused by that happening.

'Looks like that mower won't be able to move on anymore.' thought Woody.

Exactly then, there was ringing of the phone from Shelly's house.

"Excuse me... I-I have to take this." she said.

"Sure, no problem."

And Woody was left alone with the bag of bird food, he continued to throw some of it on the ground.

'I wonder if this could be used for a prank in some way.' he thought to himself.

Nearly as soon as he wondered that, some more pigeons flew to the food and started to clumsily fight for the bird food. Just in case he took some of it and put it in his pocket. At that moment, his mobile phone rang.

"Hello?" he said after picking up.

"Hello, Woody." and it was Joe "I'm calling you to let you know that today's schedule for shooting is again bit earlier than usual, so we'll be coming after just a few minutes."

"I understand. Thanks for letting me know that."

Then they said "bye" to each other and hung up. It was clearly time for shooting a new episode already.

At his house Woody put his sack of marbles into pocket as another tool for pranks. He then spied on his neighbour through one of his windows to see what kind of activities he was going to do. So far he only saw him in the bedroom sorting the clothes in his wardrobe. He even sniffed some and threw on the ground.

The crew finally arrived.

"I apologize for the early arrival. I had to come like this." said Joe to Woody while angrily looking at the camera crew.

"That's alright. Anyway, was the manager satisfied with our last episode?" Woody asked.

"Have I not told you that yet?" the director questioned back as he wasn't sure.

"No, you haven't. You promised me to tell me that the next day after shooting." the young man replied.

"Good grief, have I really forgotten that?" the director put his hand on his forehead from frustration, he then replied with:

"The manager was okay with the episode. You were careful there, which is good."

While preparing for the shooting Joe walked from cameraman to cameraman with irritated expression. Woody was confused and asked a person who wasn't checked by him – Kelsie.

"What happened to Joe?" he whispered to her.

"Weeell, Nick sort of told him we were watching that one movie where he played as headless horseman and made fun of it." she answered quietly.

"Really?"

"I just find it charming. Not to mention, you rarely see him act nowadays, so this is kind of special." The editor didn't seem anyhow worried or troubled.

"What's the name of the movie by the way?"

"You don't know it?" The editor was quite surprised by this question. "It's called Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

"I must then research it later if I don't forget."

"You will like it. I sure did and I don't even like horror movies."

Then the director said out loud:

"Okay, let's start this now." Everyone got to their position. Even our hero Woody prepared himself next to the main door. Joe approached him one more time before letting him go.

"I hope you won't disappoint me today."

"No worries. I will find a way to brigthen your mood." the prankster said to him with a smile and a wink.

Then he left his house to go next-door and play tricks on his neighbour yet again.


	34. Laundry day

'Alright, time for another action.' the young man thought to himself as he was approaching the dirty house.

Right after entering it, there was a lot of noise coming from the basement. Woody didn't waste any time and quietly peeked through the keyhole of the door. He didn't even do his greeting gesture. He saw his fat neighbour impatiently waiting in front of noisy washing machine.

'What a surprise! I wonder what he is going to do next.' Woody then went to the kitchen.

There he looked at the hidden camera and greeted the audience with his gesture. When he looked around, he noticed a box of washing powder.

'Uhh, is Rottweiler missing something in the washing progress? No wonder his clothes always look dirty!' he thought to himself.

By examining the box closely he found out that the powder looked more like flakes. That inspired the prankster to take the whole box.

'What if... I just borrow it for a while. I'm sure the neighbour won't mind.'

His next destination was living room. Right after opening the door his carefulness turned on maximum level because of sleeping Mort in the corner. Woody carefully tiptoed his way while angrily looking at Mort.

'How come this dog always appears in places I don't want? I remember he used to be outside!'

Besides the unwanted pet and a plant near the window there was also a vacuum cleaner near the sofa. Perhaps Rottweiler had his whole day prepared just for late spring cleaning. He must had forgotten that such time in year even exists, because his whole house looked abandoned for like forever. Another proof for that could be found in bedroom. There was prepared iron stand with iron itself put on it. Not to mention Woody could also see an airer through the balcony window.

He could do nothing interesting for now, so he decided the best thing to do at that moment was to explore further. Not very excited he entered the study. He tried his best not to look at the unfortunate cute victims on the wall of dirty fame. To his disappointment he found nothing. All that was there was just the computer and the aquarium with few fish in there.

'These fish have such dirty aquarium. Does Rottweiler even clean it?' asked Woody in his mind.

It didn't take even a second for a small sparkle of idea to appear. The young man pulled out the box of soap flakes which he used for the fish food that was near the aquarium.

'Even fish want to see what is going on outside, don't they?'

Then he returned to bedroom. It was good he did that, because he already heard some loud stomps coming from lower floor. It sounded like a giant elephant, but since this was Rottweiler's house, the elephant was surely bald and pretty stinky. Woody immediately hid under the bed to avoid the big danger. Roger entered the room with a basket full of laundry. He came to the iron stand and put there few clothes from the basket. After turning on the iron he headed towards the balcony with the remaining clothes. As soon as the door closed behind him, our prankster got out of the bed. He planned to leave the room, yet he still stopped at the door. The iron started releasing a small amount of steam.

'Alright, neighbour, I'm going to 'help' you with the laundry. Clearly you need that.' the young man thought to himself and approached the stand.

He then placed the hot iron on the clothes that were there.

'I'm pretty sure this is still in.'

He then got the feeling that Roger was returning, so he quickly hid under the bed once more. A minute later the fat old loaf came and he didn't even manage to close the door, he noticed some strange smoke. What he didn't expect was right in front of his eyes - burning clothes! He quickly put away the hot iron. But alas, his trousers had more holes than necessary in order to be worn. The grumpy potato angrily shouted once he realized that:

"Just how the hell did that happen?!"

Woody under the bed tried his best not to disclose himself by covering his wide smile and preventing himself from chuckling too loud. It sounds ridiculous, but seeing his cruel neighbour receiving a humorous punishment was really funny. It took a while for the old stinky man to calm down. He irritably threw the ruined trousers on the floor, because what else could he do with them? He then moved on to the study to feed the fish before moving on to the next chore. The door closed behind him and Woody quickly went on the balcony where he found the washed clothes on the airer.

'It is hard not to resist. I know what to do here.' he thought to himself and pulled out the bird food that he got earlier.

Before he started his prank, he noticed someone familiar down there.

'It's Shelly!' he was glad to see her.

The young lady was in her yard feeding pigeons. Looking closely, she slowly threw the bird food on the ground while having her head face down. She wasn't smiling.

'Oh no, maybe she is sad because I suddenly left. Poor girl...' it wasn't a pleasing sight for our prankster.

He felt a little bad for leaving her that early. After realizing in what kind of situation he was in at the moment, his mood changed to slightly better.

'I've got something that might cheer you up. Watch this.' he didn't say it out loud, because that would mean a lot of trouble for him.

He spread the bird food on neighbour's washed clothes and quickly hid so he couldn't be seen by anyone outside. The birds in the yard sensed the large amount of food on the balcony as if they heard someone throwing them, or they knew the young man was in desperate need of them. The whole flock flew away which surprised Shelly. She watched their flight until she realized where they were heading. All of the birds sat on the airer ignoring the washed clothes altogether and started eating. The young lady couldn't help but to giggle at this whole nonsense, probably thinking something like "This is so unfortunate."

And that was what Woody wanted - just to cheer up his friend. Not only that, the birds already started leaving some droppings on the clothes, so it was extra points for entertainment. He then quickly went to the bedroom where he already heard some screaming. It turned out that Roger used specially prepared fish food by Woody himself which resulted in the fish flying away from the aquarium in bubbles. All surprised and shocked by that Rottweiler screamed out of fear:

"GHOSTS!"

"No ghosts, washing powder! To make the aquarium clean as new. The ads say so." said Woody who was sure his neighbour wouldn't hear him through his own screaming.

Roger then realized that the bubbles came from washing powder in the fish food. Fully mad he unleashed a growl from his wrinkly pug-like angry face.

"Somebody or something is messing around with me!" he stomped while waving his hands in the air.

Woody then left the bedroom knowing that he could do nothing else upstairs. In the living room he had to be once again careful because of sleeping Mort. He planned to go to the basement to explore it, but just before leaving the living room he thought of spreading marbles on the floor in case his neighbour would go back downstairs sooner. While doing that he noticed a vacuum cleaner near the sofa.

'There is a lot to be done here.' he thought to himself.

With the small prank done he moved on to the basement. Meanwhile Roger caught all his fish and put them where they should be. Or rather shouldn't be, since they deserved a much nicer owner. The fat dog angrily left the study. He then noticed something strange in the balcony window. His clothes were all dirty from bird droppings! When he went on the balcony, the sight got actually worse. The pigeons which were sitting there got scared and flew away, leaving only the big mess behind. Roger started yelling:

"GAAH! I was just done with it and now it's dirty again! CURSED BIRDS!"

His angry shouting and stomping could be heard throughout the whole house, even in the basement where Woody currently was. In there he saw the washing machine and even a tumble dryer both turned off at the moment.

"Hmm, I believe he is going to use these two devices again." the young man said to himself.

While stepping forward he noticed he stepped on a water puddle.

"What the-? Is this from the washing machine? How old is that thing anyway?"

The puddle was close to a socket making it a great hazard if Woody wanted to walk around. At least all the cables weren't going through that... however... that gave a small spark of idea to our prankster. Before that he searched in the room further for some possible tools. Next to two devices there was a pile of boxes, in few of them there were some bottles. Looking at them closely they turned out to be bottles of cheap wine.

"Well, check this out," Woody started talking to the audience while showing the bottle to the hidden camera "this plonk has probably never seen a grape."

He then came up with a brilliant idea involving the washing machine. He opened it and poured all the bottle content in there.

"This should give his clothes more interesting color." was his comment.

In the corner the young man noticed a crafting table with many tools on it. Perfect! Maybe there was something that could help him make good pranks. And indeed, he had a lot of choose from. All tools looked useful. Under the table were lying some tires and cut off cables.

"Alright, first, let's break something." said Woody and picked up the first thing that hit his eyes - a pair of tongs.

He used them to slightly loosen the cover of the tumble dryer. Then he grabbed a scoop from the table and one cut off cable from underneath. The cable was then plugged so that its end was touching the water puddle.

"Kids, don't try this at home." said the prankster to his audience.

Just when he did that, he heard the scream and a loud slam from the living room. It was of course Roger slipping on the marbles. Woody immediately left the basement and hid in the kitchen. Through the keyhole he could see the fatso picking up all the dirty clothes that he dropped just a while ago.

"Stupid little... dirty... cursed..." he mumbled to himself angrily.

Scared Mort was only watching him. After Rottweiler picked up everything he dropped, he headed straight to the basement, leaving the dog alone. The animal then tried to fall asleep again.

The big bad bear entered the basement. Because of him carrying so many clothes and having a giant belly he couldn't see where he was stepping. He slightly touched the nearby water puddle with his foot and immediately he started flickering like a lightbulb during a storm. Even his scream sounded like a broken recorder. Once his foot got away from the puddle, the crazy show ended. Roger's three hairs were standing straight as if they were nails on his head. He was frozen for a second like an ice statue with the exception that he was slightly dark on some parts. He then noticed the cut off cable plugged nearby the puddle.

"What the-?! How the HELL-?!" he yelled, all confused.

After that statement he quickly unplugged the cable so there was no longer any danger for him. He moved on with his miserable day by putting all the dirty clothes into the washing machine. He expected no more silliness in his house, after all, he used the washing machine earlier that day and everything was fine. He kept waiting in the basement because he was lazy to do anything else in the meantime. While looking at the washing machine he noticed something strange. Really strange. Downright extraordinary. The whole inside turned red for some reason. He turned the machine off to check what happened there. Everything that he put there was all covered in red! Not a single original color was left! Rottweiler started cursing louder than a siren while kicking the poor electronic appliance. There was simply no room for a silence in the whole house. Even Mort in the living room got startled by it, forcing Woody to still wait in the kitchen.

'At least I didn't go right away, but if this takes longer, I might just abandon this prank.' the young man thought to himself.

It suddenly got quiet. Probably Rottweiler calmed down. This was when Mort the dog finally fell asleep. Now it was perfect chance for Woody to do one more prank before leaving. He left the kitchen and approached the plant that he saw before along with the vacuum cleaner. With the scoop from the basement he dug into the flower pot. The soil in there was firmly pressed so it couldn't be ruined with bare hands. He then used the soil for messing up the carpet.

'From the looks of it, maybe the dog did his business here.' was what he thought.

He planned to finally leave, but when he looked at the whole masterpiece, he felt like something was off. One small change would make a big difference. Suddenly... an idea popped up! Woody used the sharp edges of the scoop to make a hole in the dust bag of the vacuum cleaner.

'There! And now the cleaning is no longer possible.'

Rottweiler already gave up on washing off the red color from his clothes, so he just accepted the fact that a quarter of his entire wardrobe was one single color and smelled like his favourite drink. He put all of them into the tumble dryer. After he turned it on, all of the content flew right onto his face.

"To HELL with these clothes! They simply aren't worth of washing anymore!" he yelled and threw them on the big pile of coal.

He angrily stomped all the way to the living room. Just when he left the hall, Woody came from the kitchen and carefully left the house. Rottweiler had already enough of the whole day. Nothing worked in his favour. The whole madness reminded him of previous days with similar outcomes - broken or ruined stuff. He just wanted to forget this all. Forget about the whole misery, forget about the whole laundry day nonsense. He didn't need to be clean, he still had his beer and TV. Just when he was about to approach his lovely sofa, he looked at the carpet - it was all covered with brown stains.

"MORT!" he started yelling at his dog causing him to wake up.

"You slouch! You don't know you're supposed to do your business outside?!"

The poor dog only whined and covered his face with his paws. Furious old grump grabbed the prepared vacuum cleaner and turned it on. Can you guess what happened? It probably isn't a big surprise - something went wrong. Instead of vacuuming like it should, it started releasing the dust from itself. Soon the whole room was covered in dust and Roger was only coughing and trying to search for the turn off button. Mort quickly left the room to find a better place to breathe. The old man couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed the vacuum cleaner and threw it against the wall. That way he destroyed it, but also made more dust which wasn't even in the dust bag itself.

"CURSES!" he managed to say despite coughing so much.

Already outside, Woody quickly jumped over the hedge on his own yard to avoid suspicion. When he looked at the yard of his kind friend, Shelly was still looking down at pigeons that she was feeding. The young man decided to come to her instead of returning to his house.

"I'm back, sorry for leaving so soon." Woody apologized.

"It's okay..." Shelly was feeling a little uneasy.

He seemed to have noticed that so he asked out of curiosity:

"Is anything wrong?"

"I... umm..." she tried to push herself to speak, but ended up hesitating since she became more nervous.

Woody couldn't tell what she wants to say.

"Iiii..." the girl was still quite reluctant, she even began to tremble slightly.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me, if you don't want to."

"I do!" because of her inner pressure, she unexpectedly cried out.

Followed after that was awkward silence. Shelly looked away while her cheeks became rosy and heated.

"...but I can't! Yet!" she suddenly added, then quickly went back inside.

Her sudden outburst definitely left Woody confused.

'What could possibly go through her mind?' he thought.

He decided to return home. He felt she needed some time for herself. At his house the crew was already preparing to leave. Joe was standing there as he greeted Woody with a smile:

"Good job with the episode."

But then his expression changed to a bit concerned:

"Is anything wrong?"

Woody wasn't quite sure what he was talking about. He only looked at him with uncertainty.

"Did she leave you?"

The host realized the director talked about Shelly... but as his girlfriend! He quickly replied with slightly red face:

"No, no, she just doesn't feel well. It's not like we are dating together..."

"You aren't?" asked then Joe "From what I have seen, you two are getting along quite well. Still, you have got plenty of time."

'I'd rather not ask what he means by that.' the young man thought to himself trying not to look awkward.

It was only after the crew left that he could relax and try to think about something not crazy.

* * *

Two days passed away. It was already night in Blue Highway. Everyone was prepared to shut the doors and windows to go to sleep. Only one person couldn't fall asleep in the neighbourhood. It wasn't Mr. Rottweiler. It was our hero Woody. Still lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling he couldn't stop thinking about certain someone... who happened to be his kind neighbour and friend Shelly. He still wasn't sure why exactly, it simply happened so suddenly and out of the blue. Whatever was the case, Woody closed his eyes and took a deep breath while trying again to doze off. He felt her presence even though when it was obvious that she wasn't there. That made it even more difficult for him to fall asleep. Even after he opened his eyes, he still had this image of her in his head. To him, it was so admirable how sweet, modest and innocent she was. Not only that, but she was without a doubt the most beautiful girl he had ever seen - both inside and out. Of course she had her flaws, but neither him was perfect. He still saw her as a rough diamond. At this point there was no denying of it anymore - he was in love with Shelly.


	35. Love confession

In the neighbourhood Blue Highway. Woody just barely woke up. He moved to look at the clock, which made him notice that it was nearly noon. In fact, it was surprising that he got any sleep at all, especially since the past few days. Not because of that lousy stinker next-door, but because he couldn't get Shelly out of his mind. So he didn't got up immediately - instead he continued to rest. After a few minutes, he got up jokingly thinking to himself:

'Pfft, what am I doing? I shouldn't be spacing out too much, otherwise I'll end up on the Moon or somewhere further.'

He kept that made-up joke in mind for another time. Afterwards, the young man skipped most of his usual morning routine; he only brushed his teeth and put on his regular clothes since he was kind of in a hurry this time. When Woody was about to go out of his house, he thought with a smile:

'I'm going to tell her that I love her.'

However, he suddenly stopped himself as that smile faded.

'Wait... how should I say it to her?' he wondered.

That was why he began to speak out loud as if he was practicing in front of a mirror, except there obviously wasn't any mirror in front of him.

"Hello Shelly, I wanted to tell you something..." the young man suddenly broke off his own sentence when he realized that it doesn't seem well enough "Nonono, too soon! I mustn't say it right away."

Then he cleared his throat a little and started it over by saying:

"How are you today? Good? You know... ever since I first met you, my days have been much brighter. You're such a nice girl. You're also very talented... and... I love you. Do you love me as well?"

Now he was feeling sure with himself and knowing what exactly he would say.

'Just don't lose fate, Woody. You're a cool guy.'

Right after that thought in mind, he stepped out of his house with just about enough confidence.

Meanwhile Rottweiler's door opened and Roger himself peeked out suspiciously while glancing around. He seemed to have become paranoid ever since so many incidents happened in his house. After Roger made sure that it was safe, he stepped outside. Exactly at that moment, Woody was outside in his own yard in a good mood. When the old oaf glanced at him, he immediately shifted his eyes away. Perhaps he thought such weak person could not be capable of doing all those things in his house?

'Huh, he looked away from me... so he doesn't suspect me for doing pranks in his house.' Woody thought to himself.

It would be really horrible if the old oaf did suspect him for all the tricks he had done. The mischievous hero unwillingly imagined himself as his angelic-self being put on the wall by his scary devilish neighbour as if he was some kind of picture. Woody stopped himself from imagining further by telling himself:

'I better calm down and not think about that...'

Woody came to the front of Shelly's house. Even though he made sure that he mentally prepared himself, he still suddenly became slightly nervous. He stood in front of the door for about a minute while taking a deep breath. However, when he was about knock on the door, right at that exact moment Shelly opened it. Both of them were so caught off guard from each other's unexpected presence that there was awkward silence and they only stood there frozen in place for about a minute.

"Hello, Shelly!" the young man was the first to break the silence by greeting her cheerfully, "I was just about to visit you."

"Heheh... so was I..." she muttered sheepishly.

"Did you want to visit me? Should we go to my house then?" he asked.

"Actually... I want... I want to..." the young lady tried to answer, but ended up hesitating while fidgeting and playing with her own hair a bit.

But then she just took Woody's hand by saying:

"I... come in, please!"

"Okay."

Shelly led Woody to her finished work of art for him. It was clear that every stroke was carefully and lovingly placed to create a nice portrait of Woody. That made him feel amazed at it.

"Wow! This is impressive!" he exclaimed "Did you really paint this picture for me?"

She nodded while blushing, she obviously couldn't quite get used to this feeling of being appreciated and praised like that.

"Shelly, may I tell you something?" he asked.

The two were holding hands. She only quietly nodded since she didn't know what to say.

"You're a wonderful girl. Not only you're beautiful, but you're also very kind and caring." the young man admitted in an effusive way.

That heartfelt confession made the girl blush profusely and look away timidly. She felt awkward when he started describing her with such sweet words, so she stopped him from continuing with the words:

"Hush, Woody!"

And so he listened by not saying anything else. He wanted her to stop feel like that by caressing one of her red cheeks with his hand.

They wrapped arms around each other. In the embrace it was as if they were cocooned better than any butterflies-to-be. It was an affection that perhaps was a beginning of love. However, the sweet wonderful moment was interrupted by the ringing of the phone. Woody ignored it and was lost in the warmth of the embrace. Shelly was curious about the call.

"Aren't you going answer the phone?" she asked.

"Yeah, I suppose."

After those words, he kind of half-heartedly answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Woody." it was Joe "Where are you? Your house is empty but the door was opened."

"Sorry, Joe. I will be right there."

"Alright, see you then." said the director.

And they both hung up. Woody then apologized to Shelly:

"I sadly have to go, I-"

"It's okay!" interupted Shelly with cheerful voice. "We can talk later. I understand that you need to do something now."

"I will be back then." Woody was glad he didn't have to come up with a lie this time.

He rushed to his house where Joe's crew was already waiting. Woody certainly lost track in time.

"Where were you? Giving autograph to your friend?" Joe asked.

"Sort of…? No, not really. But I had an important thing to do at her house." Woody answered with a face full of love.

"Then wake up from it, will you? Our great prankster must be prepared for his show. You can come to her house later."

Then the director suddenly changed the topic:

"It's been almost a month since we started the show. Do you still remember how you looked at us when we first entered your house?"

The host answered in calm state.

"I know what you mean. You were complete strangers to me, but now you are good friends."

"I thought about you as an unusual person." Joe then added "Your ideas and way you talked at first showed me some kind of hope. I wasn't exactly sure, so I took the chance while I got it. At the end it looks like it paid off."

At first Woody thought something serious was happening. However by Joe's voice it seemed like this was just a regular talk. Still, he felt like he needed to say this:

"Then this should be a big episode, shouldn't it?"

"I don't know. It's just the 15th episode. And do you have anything that would make this a special one?"

"I'll find a way." the host replied with his cheerful smile and then he took his trusty superglue.

Even if this was just another episode like the other, he always felt like each one must be somehow special. Maybe he felt it, maybe he didn't, something was certainly going to be unique about this episode...


	36. Day of the hunter

**Author's** **note:** This chapter's title is named "Day of the hunter" instead of "Night of the hunter", because would be strange since this chapter took place during day. That's all I wanted to point out.

* * *

Once again our prankster got into Rottweiler's house like he usually did. What was unusual this time was an old fashioned music coming out from living room.

'What awful music!' Woody obviously thought his neighbour had a bad taste in music.

He looked around the hallway to see if anything was extraordinary or if any danger was nearby. He didn't hear anything suspicious, but he was sure his neighbour was present somewhere. Without hesitation he went into basement to look around. There was a mess, no big surprise for our host. He then got shocked by a gun that was on the wall, that thing which made neighbour's study so terrifying. Who knows if he would be able to hunt more than just animals. Woody quickly snapped out of the fear and continued searching for potential prank material. He saw a lot of scattered nails and bottles of wine. The bottles were empty yet they still had corks on them. That already gave a quick idea of plugging the gun on the wall.

'This will surely stop his hobby.' he thought to himself while executing the prank.

After he did that he looked at the nails on ground. While they were a great potential, there probably would be not enough time to use them all on something. Maybe a single one would be just enough to do wonders, thus he took one with him. He would have left a room afterwards, if it wasn't of a soft squeaky noise. He looked at the ground and saw a rat trapped in a mousetrap near its home in the wall.

'I bet it's the same mousetrap I used before.' Woody bent down to help the poor little thing out of its trap.

However as soon as he released the creature, it bit his hand!

"Ouch! Hey! I rescued you!" said the young prankster, but the rat was already gone in its hole "Vicious rat! This is not a thanks I asked for."

Luckily his hand wasn't bleeding. It just so happened this animal had really bad teeth, so even its strongest bite felt like a pinch.

The host decided to finally leave the room and explore the hall. He decided to check the trusty chest of drawers. From there he decided to take some black shoe polish. For what exactly? Well, the nail would be for ruining something and the black shoe polish for making a mess of something. Two different tools for two different purposes, in case one of them is needed. Also one thing in the drawers caught his attention - a deflated balloon. Probably it was forgotten since the birthday party.

'How come I haven't noticed this?' the prankster thought to himself 'I could make that balloon pop next to his head!'

Without question he took it as well. Suddenly, even when the music was loud, he heard steps approaching from the living room. Immediately he rushed to the kitchen to avoid the big bad dogface. Through the keyhole he could indeed see the walking nightmare heading to the basement. He was holding a piece of cloth, perhaps for polishing? Naturally, his hearing was in a bad condition because Woody's running steps were as loud as the fat man's.

'Let's take a look at the source of the music.' the prankster decided so and to his surprise he found an old gramophone in the living room 'I thought this thing died out years ago!'

He approached the cupboard the machine was put in. Indeed, it was an old gramophone which might be older than anyone in this neighbourhood. Woody talked to the audience:

"He could have put 'Thriller' for this thing, don't you agree?"

Right after he said it, the music suddenly stopped. When he checked the gramophone, he realized the whole disc was over. At least he took a closer look at it. Right ahead he noticed a thin shiny needle which could be easily replaced.

'I've got an idea!' he replaced the needle with the nail in his pocket and commented "That should make a big impression."

Besides the gramophone, something else that Woody hadn't seen before was a small box on the armchair. While inspecting it closer he noticed the text "tobacco" on the side.

'So he even smokes? Poluting must be his speciality. I need to find a way to stop this.'

He then decided to move on to the bedroom. There were some things in an opened wardrobe, more specifically a hunter's hat and a box. Woody was about to walk close to it, until he heard someone's breathing. It wasn't a person... it was a dog... Mort the dog.

'Oh no, not him again! He is so close to the balcony door. What if I need to get there?' the young man thought to himself.

His moving mode was immediately switched to tiptoeing to avoid potential danger. After a while a familiar squeaking occured in the same room. The prankster looked around. He couldn't find the source of it at first, but then he looked at one of the bed legs. It was the rat from the basement chewing on the leg.

'Looks like he is a rare case of rattus beaverus.'

He approached the rat quietly so he wouldn't disturb it. When he got close enough, he caught it by its tail. The animal struggled to bite Woody's hand.

"Don't worry, I don't hurt animals like you" he whispered to it and then he put it in the box of medals.

"It's not cheese, but maybe you will enjoy something coming up later."

The prankster then decided to check the bedside table. After closer inspection, he found a small container full of gunpowder. Naturally this one goes well with Rottweiler's gun, possibly even better with other much smaller device. Woody took a small amount of the powder and quickly got back to living room where he first saw the box with tobacco. He opened it to sprinkle the gunpowder all over the tobacco. He then faced the audience to say:

"Remember, kids - smoking is bad!"

Exactly in that moment he heard his neighbour walking in the hall. He immediately went back to the bedroom. Just as he assumed, the big meatball entered the living room for one single purpose - turn the awful music back on. He approached a pile of records that were next to the armchair and picked one of them up. He then went to switch the records on the gramophone. After starting it up the music first seemed to go as it should normally, that is loud and annoying. Few seconds passed, the music screeched for a while and suddenly stopped completely. Beautiful silence.

"What the Hell happened?!" yelled Roger at the gramophone.

He started punching it in order to fix it.

'Your hands won't fix it, dear neighbour, but keep trying.' Woody only smiled while hearing it from the other room.

He continued his duty by pulling out his superglue and using it on the hunter's hat that he saw earlier. The whole inside of the hat was covered with sticky glue to which Woody commented on in his mind:

'Once Rottweiler puts on this hat, he might not be able to tear it off. But when he does, he will be even balder.'

The prankster then moved on to check the study, because the old gorilla still couldn't figure out the problem with his gramophone. In the room nothing had changed much, the heads of various animals were still a terrible sight to look at and the fish aquarium was empty. Only one new thing appeared there - a cabinet with 2 golden trophies.

"How much of your pride do you need to show, Rottweiler?" asked Woody knowing that his neighbour was too busy "hammering" his outdated music device.

Near the trophies he noticed a polish for glass with a piece of cloth. He realized he picked up some black shoe polish earlier, so he came up with an idea. He opened the bottle of the clear polish and poured the dark content in there. Usually when you mix black and white, you get grey, but with this case the polish turned into a stain maker instead.

"That's what you get for shooting all those hamsters and guinea pigs!" the young man commented.

Meanwhile Roger finally noticed the sturdy nail instead of soft needle on his gramophone. He didn't know why or how it got there, nevertheless he fixed it to his liking. He started up some new music, not so different from the last one, which pleased his ears (the only ones around). He then decided to have a smoke in his own house without even opening windows. He approached the armchair where he had his smoking pipe an the box with tobacco. After filling up the pipe with the powder from the box he lighted it. Before anyone could notice, the pipe exploded right in front of his face, covering it with black. To be fair, he did smoke, but not the way he intended.

"What the Hell happened?!" the old bear asked himself, more confused than minutes ago.

He actually assumed he took the wrong container, although there wasn't much point of switching them now that his pipe was broken from the explosion.

Woody was in bedroom when suddenly he heard the steps of his neighbour coming closer. He knew he had to hide, so he quickly slid under the bed. Luckily that didn't wake up sleeping Mort. Roger went to put the box of tobacco into his night table. Without any hesitation or dubiousness he entered study to go clean his precious trophies. Once he sprayed some polish on them, only after 10 seconds he realized that something was wrong. His face turned red and his ears almost produced steam.

"Aaaaaargh! My trophies! I didn't mean to make them dirty!"

While this circus was going on, Woody quietly sneaked into the balcony to check if anything was worth for a prank. All interesting he found was just a table with a small trumpet on it. Maybe he could blow into it very loudly to scare off his neighbour? But that would kind of expose him to great danger. Perhaps the old buffoon would blow on it later? That was the most likely thing to happen. The prankster remembered he picked up a balloon not long time ago. He grabbed the trumpet and tried to attach the balloon so it was hidden inside.

"Rottweiler is going to need a lot of puff to make any sound at all." the prankster smiled while putting the instrument to the original place.

He was about to leave the balcony, but through the window he already noticed the door from study opening. He hid himself in the corner behind a plant that was there, hoping the fatso wasn't planning to go there yet.

Rottweiler approached the wardrobe. His face showed some sign of suspicion and confusion. Perhaps he thought the nice elf was visiting him again. The good question was "where is he at this moment". After a half minute of looking around, he just assumed it couldn't get any worse. Oh, how wrong he was! He put on his hunter's hat and looked into the mirror, admiring his "handsome" look. Double wrong! He reached the box with medals to randomly pick one for his chest. This just proves that pride has taken over his mind. Suddenly a biting sound was heard - the so called "wake up from the fantasy". When Roger pulled out his hand from the box, he saw a vicious rat swallowing his entire hand! It wanted to bite into it, but its bad teeth didn't really do a good job at that. Either way, Rottweiler got terrified of the thing nomming on his arm, so he quickly tried to shake it off as fast as possible.

"Why is this happening to me?!" he yelled while struggling with the small animal.

Eventually he managed to throw it away. The rat only ran into its hole with disappointment that what it tasted wasn't cheese. The angry baldhead then wanted to remove his hat. Without hesitation he pulled it by the brim, only to tear it from the rest. The other half of the hat was stuck on his head.

"I've had enough!" he yelled with rage and tried to get rid of the last piece.

It just couldn't let go for some reason. Of course it was the glue, but Roger didn't know that. Finally he managed to remove it. Now fully furious he started looking around searching for the one responsible for all of this. He couldn't find anyone. Meanwhile Woody was giggling this entire time behind the plant.

Rottweiler then decided to leave the bedroom, making it a relief for our prankster. The host quietly moved from balcony to see where his neighbour would go. It turned out he went to the hall, making the living room empty once again. The young man got an idea of using his superglue on the records that he previously missed.

'This will end Rottweilers awful choice of music!' he thought to himself.

While he was preparing that, Roger approached the main door. He did the unexpected - he locked it! After that he proceeded to look around in the kitchen. Just when Woody finished his fine work, he heard the steps coming from the kitchen.

'Uh-oh! I don't have time to leave the room! I must hide somewhere. But where?!'

Panicked he decided to hide behind sofa - his only place to hide. Roger entered the living room and started to look around. First to the left, then to the right. It was quiet. Not even Woody's quick heartbeat could be heard.

'This is not good... He expects something to happen... If he finds me...'

Nothing seemed right for old oaf. He was about to go upstairs, but just when he was near the door, he decided to check something. He stopped near the sofa that was facing to the TV, so he didn't see the seat, only the back. He took a peek and...

"YOU?!" the loaf growled upon discovering him.

What followed after his line was Woody's gasp. The fear that got into the young man made his body shake and voice disappear. Now everything was clear. After all this time, that one naive bignose was behind every single broken, switched, glued and replaced thing! They looked at each other for a very short moment. The very first act Roger had in mind was to catch and beat him to death. The only obstacle was standing between those two - the sofa.

Roger reached out his arm, but Woody leaned back to avoid his dirty hand from grabbing him. The old oaf tried again, this time from one side of the sofa while still staying on one place. Just like before, the young man stayed away from the dangerous claws as far as possible, not leaving his spot. Anger only raised, as Roger tried to quickly catch him from the other side:

"GET OVER HERE!"

The large potato sack almost got him, yet Woody managed to avoid his grab while also finally getting his voice out. It was only his fearful scream. If only something interrupted the furious neighbour, but he couldn't just call for help. It was too risky, especially when it was already forbidden to Woody. The old man had no second thought, he jumped on the seat just to get closer to his defenseless neighbour. But even then his hand missed the target and the prankster started to run away. He headed towards the main door without looking back. The humorous show now turned into a horror movie with a twist - everything is real!

'The door is locked!' he was shocked to find out this quite unfortunate and chilling revelation once he reached it.

He was about to go to kitchen, but just when he opened the kitchen door, his sweater was grabbed by Roger. He was lifted by single arm so no more he could touch the ground with his feet. The sight of puffed and angry monstrous Rottweiler was too much for the poor guy who was shaking even more. He was lucky he didn't pass out yet…

"Gotcha, you little rascal! So it was you all this time" started Rottweiler prepared to beat up his small neighbour.

Woody wished he could call for help, however he wasn't able to say a single syllable. The fear of being punched for that was scaring him. His scream before was most likely heard by no one and who knows what was Joe and the crew doing at this moment.

"Look, how cowardly you are now. Yet you dare to visit my house? Playing stupid pranks?! What shall I do with you?" continued Roger pretending to be smarter.

He seemed like he was about to give Woody a thrashing by grabbing his sweater with the other hand, while the young man only covered his face desperately trying to protect himself.

"I would tear you up so hard, but that would be too easy."

Winning over a smart guy is rare, maybe that's why Roger acted like a wise judge. He now felt like to prove that only HE is the smartest in the whole world. He remembered of the misery he had to go through before, so he suggested:

"How about do all those things that you did to me, huh? How about brushing your teeth with a shoe brush? Or make you eat an old slipper? Or put you on bed with tacks? You sure will enjoy that…"

This only teased the weak neighbour, it didn't help that each suggestion came from his own ideas. He was regretting every single one of his choices that lead to this bad luck.

"Aah! Now I know" suddenly said Roger and took the young man to the basement.

He threw him on the ground as if he was a ragdoll. It all played out just like another nightmare - hopeless Woody about to be punished by evil Roger.

There was no escape.


	37. Open ending

'This is the end. Whatever his plan is, there's no way for me to get out of this without any injury…' Woody thought while terror overtook him.

Just like he did in his dreams, he prepared his hands, his eyes and started to beg:

"M-m-mr. Rottwe-we-weiler, p-p-p-please…" his voice was shaky as if he was stuck on the North Pole and each word was spoken out very slowly.

The young man hold his tears back so he wouldn't embarrass himself too much. He already felt ashamed of even asking the fat pig for something. He had nothing else left… He was completely left alone…

"Now you are begging for mercy? Hahahah!" laughed Roger as he picked up and loaded his gun that was hanging on the wall.

He wasn't playing around! Only a psychopath or sociopath would do such move. But then Woody noticed one thing - the gun was still plugged up with the cork that he used for it way before!

'Wait! The gun is still plugged! If I provoke him just enough to make him shoot, maybe I can escape!' the idea came into his mind.

Just when the fatso had devilish smile on his face and wanted to mess around with the scared neighbour.

"Maybe I can make an exception… but only if you work for me as a house keeper."

The thought of him cleaning the whole dirty house was hard to imagine. Serve Rottweiler as a personal cleaner? No way! What would other neighbours think of that? Woody had to say at least one insult to make the fat neighbour shoot with his now useless gun. Normally he would watch his mouth, but this time it was his only way to escape. He swallowed all the kind words he had prepared on his tongue and said:

"I-I would ra-ra-rather eat d-dirt in my g-grave th-than clean your d-d-dirty house! Y-you're th-the main r-re-reason it-it stinks here!"

This was enough to make Rottweiler burn with red in his face. The gun was immediately aimed at that rascal.

"What did you say?!"

He had the finger on the trigger prepared to either scare or finish off that little brat.

"I-I s-said yo-yo-you are the-the source of that pu-pungent sk-skunk odor!"

Woody's voice sounded like he was afraid, which he was. He had small doubts about his new plan, but as his only choice he was aware of his speech and showed no fear in his face. Even though he was still shivering and had wavy mouth, his eyes were looking at the stinker very seriously. Mad Roger had enough.

"You'll eat those words!" and he pulled the trigger.

Of course it didn't shoot as he expected. Instead the gun exploded and completely covered his face in black like a half of charcoal. The old oaf was left too thunderstruck to react at all.

Before he could realize what just happened, Woody quickly got up and ran out of the basement as fast as he could. Now that he knew the main door wasn't going to be his exit, he decided to leave by the window in the kitchen. That was already the third rule he broke, but in an emergency like this he found this as his only possible choice. He safely landed on his feet and jumped over the hedge dividing the two houses. He ducked behind the hedge only to catch a deep breath. Finally he was out of that nightmare! Nobody saw this extreme stunt, no one at all. Not even the angry monstrous Rottweiler.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are, Trickster!" was what came from his house.

All those threats about ripping out his hair, smashing his teeth and beating him didn't scare Woody anymore. In exterior where anyone could notice anything, he was perfectly safe.

'Phew! I hope I learnt some lesson… This was scary…' he stood up and walked to the front door of his house acting as if nothing happened at all.

Inside there the whole crew was already anticipating him.

"You okay there, buddy?" asked worried Joe.

"I think so." answered Woody while he was closing door behind him.

The director immediately approached him saying:

"That was a really close one."

"Don't even mention it. He was one step away from beating me up."

"But you were quite brave back there." Joe patted on Woody's shoulder with a smile on his face.

"Was I? But I was trembling with fear!"

"Yet you still stood up for yourself and told that stinker right in the face what he really is."

"I guess you're right. Even though I did this for escaping..."

Kelsie stood up from the sofa to let Woody sit on it, but he insisted on not to. Joe then calmly asked:

"Do you think you can still manage to move on with the show after what happened?"

Woody only looked at him with confused and worried face. The director did not react to that, he already assumed he knows what was going on. He only added:

"This was all your idea, remember? The choice is yours."

Woody suddenly remembered how the whole show first started - it was him who called Joe and presented the idea of pranking on the neighbour. The director was only leading him to the right path. All this time, Trickster himself was coming up with all these pranks and nobody else. The show was only his, nobody else's. It would be safer to quit and move on as an ordinary man... however... what was the original intention of this whole thing? That was when Woody spoke up:

"I got scared there, you all already saw it. The whole point of the show was to teach Rottweiler a lesson. And after 14 episodes, the neighbour still hasn't changed. Not even in this one have I seen a small change in him for the better. He is too proud of himself to accept criticism. Somebody has to show him that he is not what he thinks."

He then faced Joe and replied:

"Call me crazy, but I would still continue with the show."

Joe only answered:

"I'm not sure if I could call this crazy, but the show itself surely is! It's a weird mix that no one has seen before. Only someone as short and smart as you are can make the humour in it stay alive. I doubt it would survive without you."

With that said, both the host and director gave each other friendly smiles, while Nick instantly asked:

"Shall we call this episode 'The battle between the host and the neighbour from Hell'?"

"No, for one - it's too long. The second, this can be a surprise for fans who watch the show." replied Joe while Woody got slightly irritated with this answer.

"Don't worry, buddy - the fans are on your side." that statement from the director seemed to calm down our prankster.

A half an hour passed after the crew left. Woody was inside his house doing chores to distract himself. Suddenly he heard loud talking from outside. Not just any talking, it was a familiar voice. The young man carefully peeked through his window. Rottweiler could be seen in front of his house with two police officers.

"I swear it's true! That small rotten rascal visited my house every now and then! He always prepared some nasty pranks on me! Even today I saw what he was doing! When I was about to catch him, he fired a small black ball with a slingshot! That's how I got my dirty face!"

Woody listened to the whole complaint hidden behind the curtain of his window. Well, well, well, it looked like Roger wanted to keep a secret about his precious gun which was most likely destroyed by now and instead give the police an alternative story. Either way, the two officers only shook their heads, called the old man crazy for not dealing with this on their own and moved on into their car. It was just like in the very beginning when Woody was talking to them about Rottweiler. First it was a small guy complaining about a fat man, and now it was the fat man complaining about the small guy. Who could take this seriously? Apparently not this police system. The police car drove off and Roger was only staring with a confused look on his face. Then it quickly changed to furious and red like an angry tomato.

"I am not crazy! Trickster was in my house! I saw him! I heard him! I EVEN GRABBED HIS SWEATER!" he was stomping like a mad elephant with hands waving in the air.

Woody only grinned, still hidden and said without the chance of the neighbour listening:

"Of course you're crazy, Rottweiler. Haven't you realized it yet? What you saw was a kind gentleman. What you heard was only a truth about yourself. And what you grabbed was only a lesson I meant to teach you."

The trickster later even visited Shelly. It was a good time. After being friends for quite some time, they started developing a potential love relationship. It was a slow start. They only expressed love to each other by holding hands, hugging and saying nice words. At least you could say, they were building a trust towards each other.

* * *

In the serene empty place, there was no other than Woody with crystal-clear wings on his back and halo shining over his head. The angelic practical jokester was setting some kind of trap that had a rope as a trigger and it seemed like it would be a huge surprise for the devilish neighbour.

"Surprise! I'm behind you!"

But Roger suddenly appeared behind, startling Woody. Then right after that, he grabbed him and lifted him up. The prankster tried to flap his angelic wings as best as he could to escape from the devilish neighbour's grasp.

"Just flap those little chicken wings. You know I'll tear them up now." he mocked him "And how funny is that. I outsmarted them! I told you you're nothing compared to me. All those things that you can do are useless."

"Oh... maybe I am useless..." suddenly said the angel with disappointed face, which seemed rather fake.

"Go on." was neighbour's answer.

"It looks like you've won over me - a prankster that wanted to make everyone else feel happy. And I had this prank prepared just for you."

Roger coiled his tail around angelic Woody before putting him down, and put his foot over the rope to be prepared to trigger the trap.

"Since you put a very big effort into it, let's try it out." the devilish old oaf added "I want to see your wings shatter by your own creation."

After those words, he did indeed activated the trap, but not the way he expected it. Because all of a sudden, a pie was launched at his Roger's face from what seemed to be a small catapult. That followed by eggs launched from slingshots, and big oranges from a basket which cause the old oaf to cover himself from the flying things.

"I am utterly sorry. This perhaps wasn't part of your plan." said the prankster sarcastically with a satisfied smile.

Thereafter he even easily freed himself from the devilish tail. The final thing that fell onto devil's head was a set of pans, but he was the only one to receive such a gift. Woody was further away from him sitting on a chair with his typical angelic smile.

"What's the matter? Can't keep up?" he asked patronizingly while sitting.

"Urgh! Curse you! You escaped just when I got you!" Roger growled as he punched the floor beneath him.

"You know what they say: 'The punishment for bad deeds won't miss anyone.'"

After those words, the angelic prankster took a pair of scissors and cut out a part of the devilish neighbour's tail that was trying to sneak behind him.

"Hey! That's my tail!" yelled the angry old buffoon.

"I only do what you did to my wings. Eye for eye, wings for a tail." Woody wittily remarked.

Devilish Roger attempted to craw towards him and to reach out to grab him, only for the young man standing up and giving his big speech:

"Sorry, neighbour. But I don't have in plan to be caught again. I celebrated with my friend Joe at his office. And I sure fell asleep faster than anyone else, I was that tired. Knowing myself, I'm in a very deep sleep. I have to wake myself so I can get home sooner before Shelly finds out."

And finally he flew up while proclaiming:

"But don't worry! I'll visit you again!"

* * *

 **Author's note:** That concludes the Neighbours from Hell fanfiction "Revenge is a Sweet Game" which was written by both me and my friend SailorRaybloomDZ.

Well... you have no idea what we've been through to get this far. Because of that, I will say that there are no promises for a fanfic on the sequel since it is most likely that I'll work on it alone.

However, I thank everyone who had taken their time and patience to read, follow and support our work. I say this from both on my behalf and on the behalf of my friend.

If you have any feedback, then please leave a review if you want. We would both appreciate it.


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